X Men: Evolution: Season Five
by Element Wolf
Summary: Ever wondered what happened to the X-Men after they defeated Apocalypse? Well, this is one way it could have gone. New mutants at the Institute, romances, the Brotherhood plays a bigger part, and much more. Welcome to X-Men: Evolution: Season Five! NO OCS
1. Recruiting Mutants, Part One, Intro

**Oakies, yet ANOTHER fic. What can I say? I like writing. Yes, that's a good excuse. Hopefully I can keep up with this story as well as the other ones I have. And please go easy on me with this one. I have never actually read the X-Men comics, but I figured adding comic characters was better than making OC's. I tend to find that in A LOT of cases, especially in the X-Men: Evolution fandom, they are rather annoying. Hopefully I can master the characters main personalities with reading about them on the web. *Looks sheepish* Just don't kill me if I don't. And I do know that the "Evo-universe" had changed some things from the comics, so I know I don't have to get everything perfectly right. So all I'm saying is go easy on me and appreciate the change from OC's.**

**And I know the title has been used before, and I know the idea has been used before, but I couldn't resist!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men: Evolution**

**Chapter One: Recruiting Mutants, Part One, Intro**

_The tall and very muscular young man sat on a chair in his family's kitchen. He had just finished helping his father herd in some sheep from the fields. At this moment he was painting a picture, one of the things he most loved to do. The male was painting the light snow and the multi-colored trees outside of the kitchen window. Red, yellow and orange streaked onto the paper as he brushed it. Normally one wouldn't think this boy would have been doing art, because of how muscular he was, but he was kind and cared greatly for his family, never wanting anything bad to happen to them._

"_Piotr! Piotr!"_

_The tall and muscular human looked up quickly at the call of his name. It was a woman, and he could also hear the distant yells of a man, and even fainter he could hear the screams of a little girl._

_Piotr quickly stood up from the table, and letting his paints and brushes fall to the ground, ran out the kitchen door._

_Piotr looked around for the screams. His eyes landed on a woman and a man a way down the road. There was a bright white light behind them. The woman was screaming as high as her voice could go, and hot tears were streaming down her face. The man was holding her back as she tried as hard as she could to go into the light._

_Piotr hastily ran over to them. He was worried and confused at the same time. What was the light doing that was so horrible? It seemed a bit threatening, but Piotr didn't know what was making the woman, who was definitely his mother, was crying. And why the man, who looked almost exactly like Piotr except for his hair, was trying to pull his wife back. They both should have been trying to get away from the light if they found it threatening._

_Piotr stepped behind the woman and took her away from the man, leading her back to the house._

_The woman was yelling, "Illyana! Illyana!" repeatedly._

_Piotr got the woman to the wood fence outlining the house. He turned her toward him and asked in a calm voice, "Mother, what is wrong?" in Russian, as that was the only language the woman could speak._

"_Illyana," she stammered in Russian. "My baby. . .my Illyana. . ." The woman was crying and had been crying so hard that she could barely cry anymore, so just pitiful weeps were coming out of her mouth now, sometimes with a tear or two._

_Piotr looked over to the man to clarify this. The man nodded solemnly and looked back at the light._

_Suddenly, Piotr's mind filled with horrible thoughts. His face filled with a faraway look, then he took off at full speed down the dirt road._

_The white light was starting to diminish. Piotr picked up his speed. His feet pounded so hard on the dirt that the ground shook. The white light started to close up, and Piotr jumped for it._

_But he missed._

_He grabbed for the air where the light should have been, but it was just empty wind. Piotr fell to the ground in a heap. He looked up and looked around for any sign of Illyana, but she was nowhere in sight. _

_He had just lost._

**Okay, this is just an introduction. It was meant to be very short. The next chapter is much longer. In fact, just hit the button to go to the next chapter to see it!**

**This is just a little snippet of something that leads into another thing in this story, that will lead into another thing. I hoped you liked it and please read the next chappie! **


	2. Recruiting Mutants, Part Two

**Each title, like "Recruiting Mutants", is supposed to be an "episode" per say. But it would be berserk to try and fit one in a single chapter, so I split it up in to parts.**

**Chapter Two: Recruiting Mutants, Part Two**

The mansion was silent. The only people up were the three teachers: Professor Xavier, Ororo Munroe, Hank McCoy and Logan. Logan was planning a Danger Room session, Ororo, or as almost everyone called her Storm or Ms. Munroe, was cooking breakfast, Hank was working with some chemicals in the lab, and the Professor was talking on the phone with a associate of his, Moira MacTaggart.

"Moira, I can assure you that Rahne will be quite safe here," the Professor said to the woman over the phone. "You saw how my students handled themselves during the fight with Apocalypse. It was on international news, so I heard. Rahne needs to learn how to control her powers and fight with them for the better use. I will teach her to do that, along with Logan, Ororo and Hank."

"I know yeh can, Charles," Moira said. Her voice defined that she was Scottish. The Professor had even called her even though she was all the way in Scotland. Moira and the Professor had very close relations. They had once been in love, even though that was long ago.

Moira continued. "I am jus' worried 'bout how humans are treating mutants, especially in America. They are even nastier than here, and at least no one here knows that Rahne is a mutant."

"I know it is difficult, but Rahne will have to deal with it. She seems like a strong girl to me. I know that you are worried about her getting hurt, but Ororo, Logan and I will keep a very close eye on her like all of our other students."

"Yeh know Rahne's past, Charles. Most of it is not a happy one. I jus' want t' make sure nothing like that will happen again."

"I am aware or Rahne's past," Professor Xavier said. He sighed, realizing what Moira was getting at. The Professor knew of what Rahne's life had been like before Moira had adopted her, but he knew that they couldn't shield her much longer. He knew that if she could get over what happened to her when she was a little kid, that she could get over with just about anything and keep going on with her life no matter how drastic. She was a strong girl, and yet it seemed like she was so optimistic and fun. "You know that we can not shield Rahne forever, Moira. I am sure that if she can get over what happened to her when she was little, she will be able to get over anything. Like I said, she is a strong girl."

"I jus' don't want 'er to be 'ert like she was when she was a wee one, Charles," Moira sighed. "But I suppose you are right."

"Will you let her come back to the school?" Professor X asked.

Moira's breathing could be heard on the other side of the line. She was in deep thinking. She wanted Rahne to be able to defend herself. She wanted Rahne to be taught to use her powers properly. But Moira also didn't want Rahne to be hurt. She knew she couldn't avoid it, but she'd heard stories about the way some people had treated mutants. They were not good or happy stories. She also knew though that the Professor would help Rahne, and keep her as safe as she possibly could. Moira also thought about the stories Rahne had told her about the mansion, and about the friends that she had made. After some minutes of silence, Moira came to a decision.

"I will let Rahne come back to yer school. Will it be alright if you pick her up at the airport in five days?"

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

Storm had just finished breakfast as all of the alarm clocks in the mansion went off. Six thirty a.m., time for all of the students to get out of bed for the first day of school. Scott and Jean had graduated from high school the past year. Both were expressing the desire to go to college, especially Jean. They were trying to arrange a meeting of all of the big colleges in the country and were going to try and persuade them to let mutants attend colleges.

"Ugh, I can't believe it's time for school again," Kitty Pryde muttered from under the covers. She was the only on that occupied the room, as the teachers had decided that after a lot of the incidents that happened with Rogue, that the multi-colored haired girl deserved her own room. And so she got it, and it was in the hallway to the right of Kitty's own, which had mostly teachers and Scott and Jean sleeping in it. The hallway Kitty's room was in and the hallway on the other side of it was were most of the students slept.

Kitty slowly removed the covers from her body, and swung her feet over the side of the bed. She stood up and started walking to her dresser. Inside Kitty grabbed a short skirt that was checkered with pink and white. She then pulled out a nice white shirt that had flowers embroidered on it and a silky and thick white ribbon tied above her stomach. She quickly grabbed some underwear and short socks from the dresser's top drawer and went out the door.

The brunette walked down the hall to one of the mansion's many bathrooms. After the mansion had been blown up by Mystique, the Professor decided that with so many kids living in the mansion that it was essential to have many bathrooms. It made the students and teachers all happy.

Kitty walked into the bathroom and shut the door. She relieved herself on the toilet, then jumped in the shower. The warm water fell down her face and the rest of her body making her wake up more. She soaped herself then shampooed and conditioned her hair. After that, Kitty jumped out of the shower and got dressed in her clothes.

Not a moment sooner did Amara Aquilla enter the bathroom.

"Oh, sorry!" She gasped. "I didn't realize that you were in here. I'm sorry I didn't knock!"

"It's okay," Kitty told her. "I only need to brush my hair and I'll be out of here."

Kitty quickly did her hair into her usual high pony tail with some strands of hair hanging out down the sides of her head, then left Amara and the bathroom in peace.

Kitty entered the dinning room to find that Kurt Wagner, Sam Guthrie, Jamie Madrox and Rogue were already seated at the table.

She sat down next to the blue mutant and across from the Southern girl and said, "Hey, Kurt, Rogue."

"Mornin'," Rogue said. "Not a very good one, though.

Kitty giggled, and Kurt laughed.

"_Guten Tag_, _Katzchen_," Kurt said.

"What does that mean, anyway?" Kitty asked. He had been calling her that for the past few days, and she had absolutely no idea what it meant.

"It means kitten in German," Kurt said. "Zuits you pervectly."

Over the next fifteen minutes the rest of the students entered the room: Ray Crisp, Roberto da Costa, Bobby Drake and Amara Aquilla. The Xavier institute wasn't horribly large at the moment, or as large as you would expect it to be. It seemed like a hectic handful though.

Storm, Jean Grey and Scott Summers brought out the breakfast to the hungry high and middle school students. There was only one middle school student now, though, and that was Jamie Madrox. He was now in eighth grade, as Bobby, Roberto and Ray were now all going to be in ninth grade. Amara and Sam were the oldest out of the 'New Recruits', being the only 'New Recruits' to already have experienced high school, besides a former member of the 'New Mutants', Tabitha Smith.

The breakfast consisted of toast, bacon, eggs, waffles, fruits, orange juice, hash browns and sausage, most of the students had eaten before the Professor, Hank McCoy, and Logan had come into the room.

Logan and Hank quickly grabbed what was left, while the Professor began speaking to his students.

"I have some good news," he began with. "We are going to be getting Rahne back. She will be arriving in five days, and I will send Logan with a few students to pick her up. Would anyone like to volunteer?"

"I would," Roberto said, almost too suddenly. Everyone gave him funny looks, but only one person said anything.

"Ooh," Ray taunted. "Have a thing for Rahne, do you?" Some of the other boys snickered, but a quick glare from Roberto whipped the smiles off their faces.

"Shut up," Roberto said, and took a sip of his orange juice. He then mumbled something that sounded incredibly like a cuss word, and started finishing off his eggs.

Ray was about to say something else when the Professor said, "Anyone else?"

After no one said anything, Amara spoke up, "I will, Professor. It will be nice to see her again after such a long time."

The Professor smiled. "Yes, it will. I also wanted to tell you all that we might be getting new students soon. I have already been in contact with a few of their parents. It seems like parents of a lot of mutants are calling me now. They must have seen what happened with Apocalypse, and know I can help their children. I already have three set that are due to come either this week or next week. I am sure you will all make them welcome."

"Professor," Ray said.

"Yes?" The Professor questioned.

"Shouldn't we be promoted to X-Men if there are going to be new members?"

The Professor thought about this for a minute. It would be fair to them, after all they had been through with Apocalypse a few weeks ago. But he wanted to give them one last test.

_Teachers_, the Professor said to Logan, Hank and Ororo telepathically. _Why don't we give them one last test?_

_That is fine with me Charles_, Storm replied in her mind.

_Whatever you say, Chuck_, Logan thought.

_Of course whatever you decide to do is fine with me, Charles_, Hank said to Professor X in his head.

"Why don't we give you one last test?" The Professor said to Ray. He looked at Ray, Roberto, Amara, Jamie and Sam one at a time. He knew they were ready, he just wanted to see if they knew that.

"Awe," Jamie sighed.

"It will not be very hard," the Professor told them.

"So not one of Logan's training sessions?" Sam asked hopefully.

"Don't push it haystack," Logan said.

Sam looked down at his nearly empty plate, grabbed his fork and shoved his last piece of sausage in his mouth. One of the number one rules at the mansion: never get Logan worked up. It _will _lead to bad consequences.

"No, no Danger Room," the Professor said. "Something else. Report to my office after school and I will tell you. Now, I will pass out schedules." He pulled out a few pieces of paper from his suit's inside pocket.

"First Jamie's," he said and handed the piece of paper to Ororo, who passed it to Scott, who passed it to Jean, who passed it to Sam, who passed it to Jamie. He opened it and the first thing that came out of his mouth was a moan.

"What is wrong, Jamie?" Ororo asked.

"I got Mrs. Hiller for Social Studies," Jamie complained. "Ray said she was the worst teacher ever."

Storm sent a glare Ray's way. Ray didn't falter.

"She is," Ray said. "She's always mean to us, and even the best kids in the class. Remember when she called you and said that I was being loud in class? And then she called about me chewing gum? And eating? You know I wouldn't do that. She has it out for all of the kids."

"Are you so sure about that, kid?" Wolverine asked in his usual gruff voice.

Ray sipped his orange juice. "Yes," he muttered, although none of the teacher's thought that this sounded like the complete truth. "I would never do those things."

"Anyway," the Professor continued. "Now to the ninth graders."

He passed Ray, Bobby and Roberto their schedules. The four new high school students looked their schedules over, and Ray couldn't help but surpass a groan.

"I hate Biology," he mumbled.

"Just be lucky you don't have Mr. Jenkins," Roberto said. "I heard he's horrible. And he teaches Algebra, which makes him worse."

Meanwhile the Professor handed Amara her schedule. She and Sam were the two tenth graders in the mansion. Then he handed Kitty and Kurt, the eleventh graders, their schedules, and finally Rogue, the only senior, received her schedule.

Rogue looked over her schedule twice, and then something caught her eye in the left hand corner. There were names over various staff members like consular's and deans. There was also the name of the principle and vice principle. The name in the principle spot was supposed to be Robert Kelly, but instead, in black and white, it read someone else's name.

"Kelly ain't the principle anymore," Rogue noted.

"Isn't the principle," Storm corrected, turning on her teacher mode.

Rogue rolled her eyes as the other students looked at the left corner of their papers where the principle spot was, and sure enough they found that Rogue was right. A few eyes went wide at the change in principles, but no one really cared. All of them were actually glad that Principle Kelly was gone. None of the mutants liked him, as he made them feel like trash.

"Indeed, Mr. Kelly will not be back this year," the Professor said. He started to wheel away from the table and to the door. "I suggest you all get ready. You have fifteen minutes, and then I want all of you down in the garage. Logan, Storm, Jean and Scott have kindly offered all of you a ride, as I am sure none of you want to walk all the way to school or ride the bus."

"You got that right," Ray mumbled as he and the rest of the students stood up from the dining table. They all went to brush their teeth, get their backpacks, and do the last touch-ups on their appearances before going to school.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

While Storm, Logan, Scott and Jean took the students to school, Professor Xavier and Dr. Hank McCoy found themselves with some alone time. Hank started to watch a show on the discovery channel, which was all about human evolution, which was one of the things he found fascinating. He figured it might also give him clues to the evolution of homo-sapiens into mutants. Mutants were more evolved humans after all.

Professor Xavier spent some time in his office sorting out and going through papers that were files for Rahne.

A few minutes after all of the kids had left, a tall male appeared outside the gates of the mansion. He was at least six foot five, with black hair and dark eyes that gleamed in the sun. His face was broad and shaped slightly square-like. The male's muscles were large, showing efforts of his work out with the team he used to be a part of. He was also tanned, showing he had spent a lot of hours in the sun recently.

The black-haired male looked around the grounds, then to the fence, where he found a doorbell-like button. He pressed it, and static started to hum from it.

Inside, the Professor and Hank heard the doorbell ring. The Professor immediately picked up the communicator that was on his desk. It would allow him to speak to whoever was outside without having to open the gates or go down to the door.

"What may I do for you?" The Professor asked into the communicator.

"I vant to speak to you," the person on the outside of the gates said into the communicator. "My name is Piotr Rasputin. I used to work for the Acolytes with Magneto."

"Ah, yes," the Professor said. "I remember. You helped us fight Apocalypse."

"_Da_, sir," Piotr said. "I vant to discuss something vith you, if you don't mind."

"Of course, you may come in as soon as I open the gate. The front door is un-locked."

"Zank you," Piotr said. He stepped back from the gate and waited for it to open.

Professor Xavier pressed another button on his desk, a black one, and the gates outside started to open. There were many buttons on his desk, and most people wouldn't know which ones to press for which purpose, but the Professor knew what each of them did by heart. Just in case he happened to leave the mansion, he color coded the buttons and left a list of what each of the colors did in his desk.

"Who is that?" Hank asked as he entered the Professor's office.

"A friend of ours," the Professor replied. "Piotr Rasputin. You remember him?"

"The Acolyte?" Hank inquired.

"Yes," the Professor replied. "He is our ally now. He helped us fight Apocalypse. And from what Wolverine told me, he didn't join the Acolytes to his own accord. Magneto had threatened to kill his family."

Hank shook his head. "Magneto does have horrible methods of persuasion. Do you want me to do anything?"

"No," Professor Xavier said. "I have a feeling he wants to talk to me alone. But could you please place a chair in front of my desk?"

Hank nodded and grabbed a chair from the side of the room. He then went back down to the rec. room to watch his show. On the way he passed a very confused looking Piotr.

"The Professor is waiting for you in his office," Hank said. "Down the hall, last door on your right."

Piotr nodded and said a quiet, "Thank you." Then he walked down the hall. Piotr glanced at his surroundings as he passed them. The floors were a shiny, red-brown wood, and the walls were a lighter shade of nearly the same color. There were about five bright ceiling lights in the hallway, illuminating it so it would seem like this was a wall facing the outside of the building.

Piotr peered into the last door on the right side of the hallway to see the Professor looking through it, waiting for him. Piotr hesitantly walked through the door. He wanted to know if the Professor knew what had happened, and how it could possibly be helped, but maybe it wasn't such a good idea. Piotr wasn't much for talking.

"Please sit down," the Professor said, and motioned to the chair that Hank had placed in front of his desk.

Piotr sat down in the glossy chair and faced the Professor.

Professor Xavier waited for him to start talking. He looked at the Russian expectantly.

When Piotr didn't say anything, the Professor telepathically said, _You may begin_.

The telepathic connection caught Piotr by surprise, and he jumped in his chair. Quickly, though, he became all business.

"I have come because my family has. . .kicked me out," Piotr said, and sighed after he said the last words. "And the Acolytes are no more." The Professor sat a little bit straighter, even though that was hard because of how strait he was already sitting. He had to admit that he was a bit curious.

"Why did your family do this?"

"My little sister, Illyana. . .she vas valking vith my mother and father back from za town, and then suddenly something took her away. My parents don't know vat. They just told me that a white light opened up and ate her. Zey told me to leave because zey thought this had to do with my powers, and the powers of ozer mutants. They don't get very much news living on a small farm in Russia, but zey knew I joined the Acolytes, and zey knew there were people like me on the team. They thought it was my fault that something took my sister."

Piotr's eyes became a little glossy, as he remembered his little sister Illyana. She had only been six. Piotr had a feeling that she was still alive, after what happened with Magneto. Some interesting things happened to mutants, or in this case, relatives of mutants. Piotr knew that Illyana probably would have been a mutant one day, but surely not now. He himself hadn't gotten his powers until he was fourteen.

"Eaten by a white light?" The Professor inquired, more interested than before.

"That is vat my parents said," Piotr replied.

"I will look into that and see what I can find," the Professor said. "And if I may ask, how do you know the Acolytes dis-banned?"

"I vent back to za base and no one vas there," Piotr said. "It was completely deserted. Not even Pyro was there."

The Professor mulled over this for a minute. That meant the Magneto was out of business, for a while at least. If his visions from Apocalypse were correct, Magneto would become an ally, for a while at least. This also meant, though, that Piotr had no where to go. His parents had kicked him out of his home in Russia, and the Acolytes were no more. The Professor could never resist helping someone in need. He knew Piotr was a good person, and he _knew _Magneto had blackmailed him into joining the Acolytes. It was all over his face when he talked about the Acolytes, and the Professor was confident in Logan and knew he wouldn't lie about something like that.

"Would you like a place to stay?" Professor Xavier asked Piotr.

Piotr looked him strait in the eyes. "I could not. I have no money."

"What did you do for Magneto?" The Professor asked.

Piotr's face became a little more serious, and he said, "I worked for him."

"You can do the same for me," the Professor said. "I know that from training with Magneto that you have a lot of experience. You can help train the children with Scott and Jean. I am sure they will appreciate the extra help."

"Are you sure?" Piotr asked. "You really want me to help."

"Why of course," the Professor said. "I know you are a good person. Especially after Apocalypse."

Piotr smiled a tiny bit, then said, "I will help you with the children."

"Good," the Professor said. "Let's just get some paperwork done, shall we?"

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

Later that day, Ray, Bobby, Sam, Roberto, Jamie and Amara found themselves in front of the Professor's office door. Ray hesitated for a moment, then knocked on the door. He hoped that this task wasn't going to be too hard. Actually, everybody hoped that. Hopefully the teachers hadn't changed their minds about Logan having a really challenging Danger Room session. Things at school had already been hard enough for all of them.

Since Ray, Bobby and Roberto had just started high school, getting around the huge school was a hassle for the three of them. I didn't help that the three of them only had one class together, which was gym, and that was one of the last classes of the day. As everybody had said, Mr. Jenkins Algebra class had been tough. He had given Roberto homework on the first day of school. It was a review of all of the things that they had learned in the previous year if Pre-Algebra, and it contained 120 problems. As for Ray, he already found Biology hard, even though they had just gone over the rules of what to do in the class, where to put everything, how to handle animals, yada, yada, yada. How was he supposed to remember, or _care_, about where to put away safety goggles? Bobby also found much dislike in Biology as well. He also really disliked his Spanish teacher, because she kept on talking to the class over and over again in Spanish, and wouldn't say anything in English.

"Come in," the Professor's voice said behind the door. Ray opened it and the five teenagers found the Professor sitting at his desk, doing paperwork, like he normally was. He looked up and gestured to five chairs in front of him.

As the students sat down the Professor finished up the last bit of writing on the paper he was working on for the newly arrived Piotr, then put it in a folder and looked up at the kids.

"You all want to become X-Men, correct?" The Professor asked.

"Yes," Ray said. The others nodded in agreement.

"The mission I have for you to graduate to the next level is a recruiting mission. You will go and recruit the new mutants we will be getting. Some of them you will simply just go with Logan or Ms. Munroe to pick up at the airport, but some of them it will be more difficult. You will actually have to persuade them to join our team."

After a moment of silence, Ray snorted. "You've got to be kidding me, Professor. That's super easy."

"Just remember how hard it was for some of you to join the Institute," the Professor said. "Not an easy task sometimes. As being a part of the X-Men, you do need a little bit of skills with people and patience. That does not always come easily."

"When do we start?" Amara asked.

"Tonight," the Professor said. "You will do this on nights and weekends. I hope none of you have a horrible load of homework this first week of school."

Roberto moaned. Why did he have to get Mr. Jenkins for Algebra?

"If you do, then I would suggest you get it done right now," Professor Xavier continued. "Because you will be leaving as soon as dinner is over."

"Yes Professor," the kids said almost all at the same time. Roberto stood quickly up from the chair and headed hurriedly toward the door, the others tagging along behind him.

**A lot of characters in X-Men have accents, like Kurt and Colossus, so I tried to incorporate that.**

**Oh, and if you guys have any characters from the comics or from the movies that you would like to see in this fic, please tell me! I already have the new recruits planned out, but I can probably find a way to fit them in somwhere!**

**And also, like I said, I've never read the comics, so some help with their personalities and descriptions of their powers would be nice!**

**Part three will be the last part to this section!**


	3. Recruiting Mutants, Part Three

**I decided to take some requests and change a few of the new recruits in this story. I had originally planned to have a few different ones, but after looking at some character profiles of people some reviewers gave me, I decided to replace two characters that will probably make the story a little more interesting.**

**Chapter Three: Recruiting Mutants, Part Three**

"So, where's the first new kid we're picking up?" Ray asked from his seat in the X-Jet. It was after dinner and the first recruiting mission for the 'New Mutants'. Luckily, Roberto had finished his homework, and everyone, their chores.

"Jubilee," a gruff voice said from the front seat. It was none other than the infamous Wolverine. He had volunteered to drive the kids to their destination, as well as to keep a secret eye on them, just incase anything went wrong. Besides, all of the teachers knew that none of the 'New Mutants' could even drive a car, so why would they let them drive a jet? This was especially forbidden after Bobby, Sam and Jubilee had taken the jet for a "joyride" and nearly got themselves killed.

"We're getting Jubilee back?" Jamie said.

"Yeah," Wolverine said. "Although she might be different than you remember."

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

Berserker, Multiple, Cannonball, Magma, Iceman and Sunspot exited the X-Jet on the roof of a mall. They each had a walkie-talkie strapped to the belt of their uniform, in case of any emergencies. Wolverine had not explained what had happened to Jubilee, just like the Professor had asked him. Professor X believed that the students had to find out on their own, whether that was a good thing, or something that would be hard for them to deal with.

The New Mutants found a secret escape on the roof. Magma burnt it open. To their dismay, there were no stairs down to the bottom, so Iceman made one of his famous "ice slides", and the team of mutants slid down it into the mall.

"What would Jubes be doing in a mall at nine thirty at night?" Berserker wondered.

Magma thought about it for a moment and sighed. She didn't think it was any good. "I don't know. . ."

The mutants started to make their way down the mall, looking keenly for Jubilee, and anything else that might have caused them trouble at night. It was hard, though, not to get lost in the displays of the store windows. As they passed some displays of clothing, Magma couldn't help but stop and look, and when they passed electronic or sports stores, most of the time at least one of the boys couldn't resist looking in. It was a mall at night. There was probably only one or two security guards, and for their sake they hoped it was one of those fat mall cops.

The mall was vacant at night, which the teenagers found cool. The mall was always so crowded.

Multiple sighed as he tried to keep up with the older kids. He hated being so young. He was always left out of everything. All of the other X-Men were in high school, and he was stuck at the lowest level, still in middle school, the eighth grade. At least, he figured, most of the New Mutants were only a year or two older then him. They didn't have a lot more authority over him, even though they acted like they did.

Suddenly, they heard the screech of a shoe on the floor, and they saw flashlights coming closer and closer down the hall in front of them.

"Turn off the light, dude!" Berserker said to Roberto, grabbing the flashlight forcefully from his hand and turning it off.

"What the---?" Roberto started, but was shut up by Magma putting a hand over his mouth to keep him quiet. She had had a flashlight too, but had turned it off quickly when Berserker said to do so. It didn't take a genius to figure out to do that.

The New Mutants sunk to the ground in a domino pattern. First Magma quietly slipped behind a plant, pulling Roberto with her, who grabbed Multiple's hand and pulled him down, who grabbed Berserker's hand and pulled him down, who pulled Iceman down, who lastly pulled down Cannonball. They were soon all crouching down next to a wall, trying to avoid making noises as much as possible.

"Stop right there, girl!" A voice shouted from the hall as the running footsteps got closer and closer. Nothing replied. There was only running and heavy breathing.

The girl that the guy was chasing was trying to think of a way to beat him, like she had done to a lot of the others. But she was running out of time. This guys was a lot skinnier, a lot more fit, and a lot faster than the others had been. She knew she couldn't use her "fireworks", because the guy would probably have shot her for it. For being a mutant. She needed a good shot to be able to hit him.

She rounded the corner with a screech of her shoes, and ran right past Magma, Sunspot, Multiple, Berserker and Cannonball without even noticing them. Her mind was set somewhere else. Trying to get away.

The New Mutants almost gasped in shock, but when the security guard went past them, all of their mouths shut in dread. But the man didn't notice them either; he kept on going after the girl.

When the light got dimmer down the hall, and the running feet faded much more, Berserker stood up.

"He was chasing Jubes."

"Obviously," Sunspot said.

Berserker glared at him, although no one saw it in the dark.

The he said, "The question is, what did she do?"

"We'll never know until we find her," Magma said. She stood up, flicked the switch on her flashlight on, and started jogging down the hall.

"Come on," she said, motioning her head toward the way Jubilee and the security guard had went. "We have to go find her."

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

They had made it down all the way to the food court, and saw the security guard knocked out on the ground. Jubilee sat at the table, eating a burger.

The scene made Magma and the others sad, as they remembered the Jubilee that used to that at the mansion. She still had the same yellow coats, and the same style shirt and pant. Her eyes were still brown, but didn't seem as mischievous and happy as they remembered. The looked pained. Even sad. And angry.

Magma was the first to speak, and she spoke gently and softly. "Jubilee."

Jubilee was taken very much by surprise. She jumped up, turned around, and her power activated. Purple light sprung around her hands, and a small firework flew from her hands and into Magma's stomach, sending her flying to the ground.

Berserker and Cannonball helped her up, and while they did, Jubilee picked up her half-eaten burger from the ground. She sighed, as it was now ruined. There went her meal for the day.

She then remembered who was standing right in front of her, and threw the burger on the table she had been sitting at.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, and it came out a little forceful. She had never thought she'd see them again, and she was happy. On the inside. On the outside she clearly didn't want them to see her this way.

"The Professor wants to invite you back to the Institute," Cannonball said kindly. "He wants you to come back."

"Maybe I don't want to," Jubilee said, and picked up the burger from on the table. She threw it away in the trash can.

"Why?" Berserker challenged. "Have something better going on here?"

Jubilee turned on her heel and glared at him. "What would you know?"

"It just seems to me that your life pretty much sucks now," he said. "I mean, you were running from a security guard at ten at night in a mall. Who would call that normal? Or good?"

Jubilee was silent. Berserker was silent. Everyone was silent. Jubilee knew that they had figured out that she wasn't in a good situation, but she wondered if they knew exactly what had happened to her.

For a few minutes there was silence, until Magma spoke. "Please come back with us, Jubilee. We want you back at the Institute."

Jubilee sighed. "Maybe. . ."

"Not maybe," Berserker said. "Yes or no. And an explanation is in order."

Jubilee sent him a glare, so hard that if looks could kill, it would have. "My parents are dead. I ran away from the orphanage because I didn't want to be there, and the closest place I could be at was here. Any more questions?" Everyone fell into silence again. Jubilee's parents were dead? She had been living here? For how long? More questions and comments swirled inside all of their minds.

Iceman was the one to speak up. "We can take you back to the Institute, and then you won't have to do this anymore." He motioned to the unconscious security guard on the ground, and then to the trash can where Jubilee had thrown away the food that she had stole.

Jubilee thought for a minute. She truly wanted to go back, but would she be able to fit back in there, after all that had happened. Her parents dying, her being sent to an orphanage, then running away to the mall. Them and their fighting Apocalypse and saving the world. But in the end, she decided that none of that mattered. If she wanted a decent life, at least for a while, she knew she had to go with them.

"Yes, I guess I'll go back with you."

Cannonball smiled. "That's what we wanted 'ear!"

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

Back at the mansion, Kitty Pryde was leading Piotr Rasputin around the mansion, giving him a tour of the place.

"So this is like the kitchen, and over here is one of the living rooms. . ."

Was basically the only noise between the two. Kitty noticed that Piotr was very, very quiet. He only nodded when she told him each of the rooms, and he only said one word the whole time: "Thank you" at the end of the tour.

"So this is your room," Kitty said, walking into a room that was bare except for the bed, a chair and a small table, and a dresser. It was pretty bland, painted white with a red floor.

"It would look better if you decorated it with something," Kitty said. "Do you have anything to decorate it with?"

Piotr shook his head "no" and sat down on the bed.

He looked around the room. Piotr found it very nice, even nicer than the Acolyte base, and he thought nothing could have been nicer than that. He had grown up in a small farmhouse in Russia, so Piotr have never seen such a nice place. They didn't have any in Russia, or at least not that he had seen.

"Oh. . ." Kitty said. "Maybe we could get you some stuff. Maybe things to remind you of Russia or something."

Piotr nodded, but felt sad thinking of Russia. His home. Whenever he thought of his home, he thought of Illyana, his little sister, and tried to find out what had taken her, but couldn't.

"Well, I'll just leave you to chill out," Kitty told him, sensing a bit of uneasiness. "Did you want like. . .anything to eat or drink or something?'

Piotr shook his head "no", and Kitty left the room. She wasn't going to let him become isolated that easily. Over the next few days, she would try hard to become his friend, and at least get him to talk once in a while.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

During the next few days the New Mutants had recruited some new recruits without problems. They had recruited three new mutants. One of them was a friend of Kitty's, Danielle "Danni" Moonstar, otherwise known as Mirage. The second was Monet St. Croix, who had superhuman strength, invulnerability, flight and telepathy. The last student that the X-Men had collected was a boy named Kevin Ford, who, when he touched people or organic things, they started to decay.

Danni was getting along quite well with everyone, and was probably the only new recruit to do so. Everyone thought that Monet, who they had codenamed M, was, well, rather an arrogant and pompous person. She didn't get along with any of the X-Men. Not one of them. And that was just based on her first few days at the Institute. Kevin, who had been codenamed Wither, was often quiet and didn't talk to anyone, and like Rogue, found his powers to be the most horrible thing that could have ever been given to him. With touching someone, or an organic thing, could make it decay and shrivel up, eventually having enough power to kill it. He couldn't touch people, much like Rogue, and could only wear a special type of clothing so that his clothes would disincarnate.

Danni and Kitty sat in the rec. room on the Friday of the first week of school, after school and dinner had ended. Danni's first day had been that day, as well as M's. Kevin had arrived just the night before with the New Mutants guiding him, so the Professor would have him start the next Monday.

M was sitting and watching a soap opera on T.V.. Ray, Jubilee and Sam were across the room, playing a game of pool. Piotr Rasputin sat on a chair by Kitty and Danni and watched them.

Danni and Kitty were playing a board game. _Sorry!_. And Kitty was kicking butt. Danni complained that she had never played the game before.

Monet, who was sitting on the couch, blankly watching the soap opera, said, "The game is fair and easy. There's really nothing to it. You're just losing, and you don't want to admit it."

Jubilee heard what she said and rolled her eyes. "That's what you would do." She had directed the comment at Monet, and Monet knew it too.

But M decided to ignored it. She really didn't care what Jubilee had to say.

Jubilee looked over at Monet and narrowed her eyes, but when Ray handed her the pool stick and told her that she better go or she's loose a turn, Jubilee turned her attention back to the game.

A few minutes passed, and the soap opera went on commercial, so Monet turned the T.V. off and left.

Jubilee looked over at her leaving, and when she was out of the rec. room Jubilee said, "Glad she's gone. She is a real pain."

"Yeah," Ray said. "I wish she would just shut up once in a while. She never stops being rude to people." He looked down the shaft of the pool stick and took a shot at the number five ball, just managing to knock one of the other balls into a hole on one of the corner's of the table. He smiled and handed the stick to Jubilee.

She tried the number six ball, but missed everything and threw it to Sam, who didn't hit anything either.

Ray smirked, and leaned down to take another shot, but at that instant Roberto rushed in. His face had an anxious expression on it. He looked around the room and spotted Jubilee, Ray and Sam standing by the pool table, all looking at him curiously.

Roberto was wearing his New Mutants uniform, complete with a walkie-talkie strapped to his side.

"Professor X says to meet Storm and Wolverine at the X-Jet in five minutes," he told Sam and Ray. "He says we have an emergency recruiting mission. So get ready fast."

He turned and started jogging down the hall, toward the garage.

As his footsteps faded away, Jubilee said sarcastically. "Really nice guy." Then she added, non-sarcastically. "Hasn't changed much."

Ray shrugged and handed her the pool stick. "Nope."

He headed for the door with Sam, and Sam turned his head back to look at Jubilee. "So ya latah, Jubes."

She waved. "Bon voyage."

Jubilee leaned the poll stick against the table and walked over to the couch, sat down, and turned the T.V. on. She stuck her tongue out and scrunched her face up in disgust at the soap opera, and quickly changed the channel, pressing the up bottom with the remote. She skimmed through the channels, through shows like _C.S.I_., _Spongebob_, and _Full House _reruns and other shows until she found one that she liked. She put the remote down and began watching the show, settling down in the couch, wishing that she could be on the mission with Ray, Sam, Roberto, Amara, Jamie and Bobby, on an emergency recruiting mission.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

"So what's this emergency recruiting mission?" Berserker asked once all of the New Mutants were in the jet, along with Storm and Wolverine, who sat up front at the controls, steering the jet to it's destination.

Wolverine sighed. "This girl is. . .in a lot of trouble, let's just say."

"A lot of trouble?" Jamie asked. "Like what?"

"You'll find out," Wolverine said. "So much that Storm and I are going to help you looks for her."

Ray said, "But this is supposed to be our mission. If we don't pass, we won't get to be X-Men."

"Trust me, kid, the Professor won't mind with this one," Wolverine said. He started to steer the wheel down. They had arrived at their destination, and it had take an hour. Luckily, the jet was fast. Super fast. It could get across the country in that amount of time.

Wolverine landed the jet at what he thought was a nice landing, but for everyone else, it wasn't smooth. Storm jumped two feet in her seat, and she, and everyone one else, was lucky that they were all smart enough to put their seatbelts on. They knew Wolverine wasn't the best flier in the world.

The New Mutants went out the door of the jet, Storm and Wolverine close behind them.

They were on a dock, over-looking a patch of darkness. After a few seconds, they realized that they were in California. Again. They had been there to recruit Jubilee back to the X-Men. They were surrounded by sand and the salty smell of the ocean. Lights could be seen a little farther away.

They were also surrounded by ships, though all of them seemed like ghost ships because the docks were deserted, and barely any lights on the ships were on. They were dark, sometimes illuminated by a light on the deck of the ship.

Wolverine sniffed the air and scowled. "The ocean smell is too strong. I can barely smell Storm."

After a few moments of silence, Storm told the New Mutants what was going to happen. "We are going to split up into groups of two. Wolverine and Cannonball, Sunspot and Berserker, Magma and Multiple, and Iceman and I."

"Awe, why do I have to be in a group with him?" Berserker asked, pointing his thumb at Sunspot.

"It's not like I want to be with you either," Sunspot said.

As you may be able to tell, Sunspot and Berserker aren't the best of friends. They really resent each other. Almost everyone thought it was the parallel personalities. They really were alike in so many ways. Both a bit arrogant, both wanting to be the best. Sunspot was a little more cut off from the rest of the group than Berserker, but otherwise, the same personality traits. And Sunspot resented Berserker for being closer to the group, and try as he might his personality stayed the same, making some not like him very much, but they would much rather be around him than Monet, who was one-hundred times worse.

"Because we said so," Wolverine told them bluntly. "It doesn't matter what you want. We put you together, you work together."

Storm nodded, agreeing. "Bobby and I will go to the east end of the harbor. Wolverine and Sam go to the west side of the harbor. Magma and Jamie stay here and look around these ships in the middle. Ray and Roberto will go over to the loading dock and look."

"What are we looking for?" Multiple asked. His innocence and cute, changing voice made the "looking" in his sentence squeak, going up high. He blushed and looked down. Of course, the other boys were still going through that, but since Multiple's voice had just started squeaking a little while ago, and he still had an innocent kid's voice, they couldn't help but smirk.

"A girl," Wolverine said. "Most likely, she'll be hurt. Hence the "emergency recruiting mission"."

Storm nodded. "If you find her, either bring her back to the X-Jet and call Logan or I on the walkie-talkie. If you run into trouble, call us."

Everyone looked around at each other. They all wondered what kind of danger this new mutant was in. It had to be really serious from the way Storm and Wolverine were acting.

"Got that?" Wolverine asked all of the New Mutants.

Some of them said "yes" or "yeah", and a few of them just nodded.

"Good," Wolverine said. "Now split up!"

Storm and Iceman took off toward the east side of the harbor. Storm picked him up by the arms and started to fly him over. Iceman resisted a little, but after a look from Storm he calmed down and enjoyed the flight. They flew over many blacked-out ships, and sea-water spaces in-between the docks.

Iceman looked past the beach and to the welcoming lights of the seaside town. He sort of wished that he was back at the mansion, sitting by Jubilee and watching a horror or action movie, but he knew that this mission was very important for the New Mutants. To become X-Men would be a the most amazing thing. Bobby thought about the new uniforms they would get, the uniforms they would be able to choose a signature color for, like Kitty's purple or Kurt's red, and design it how they wanted. Bobby himself would love that instead of the plain and matching uniforms the New Mutants wore. Even Magma, being the only girl now, wore the same uniform as the rest of them. Iceman would love the chance top be the leader or the new X-Men if the teachers let them pass. He figured he would be, since he was already the leader of the New Mutants, even though he was a year younger than two of them.

Wolverine and Cannonball took off at a run toward the other end of the harbor. Cannonball struggled to keep up with Logan after a point, and at one point asked him to slow down. But the Wolverine was determined and would not stop. He kept running, never slowing his pace, and even picking it up once or twice.

Cannonball began really annoyed and started using his power, bouncing all the way instead of running. It was harder to control himself though, and one time he almost flew into the murky ocean water.

Wolverine and Cannonball reached the west side of the harbor nearly ten minutes later. They began searching through the ships, looking for the girl that Wolverine had been talking about.

Magma and Multiple remained in the middle of the harbor, searching the ships near them for the girl. They had been lucky that only one ship had occupants, and they were all too busy watching T.V. to notice them slip on and off the ship.

Meanwhile, Sunspot and Berserker headed over to the loading dock. They hadn't talked to each other, well, except for insulting each other. Berserker had complained that Sunspot had no power at night, since the sun wasn't out, and Sunspot had told him to shut up, telling him that he had some solar energy stored up in his system and could always take a little energy from the moon. Berserker pointed out that the moon was only half-full, which made Roberto more mad, which caused him to push Berserker down.

Right as Berserker was about to come back from the push, the heard something. A voice. Then another. Then another. One was feminine, and the other two were masculine. The feminine voice sounded scared, pleading.

Berserker caught up to Sunspot, who was climbing a ladder to the loft of the storage room they were in. If it had been in a different situation, Berserker probably would have zapped him with a bolt of electricity, but hearing the voices immediately made that option disappear.

Above in the loft there were a lot of crates. Many, with many different labels, and many different things going to many different places. There were solar window like windows above them, causing the light of the half-moon to stream into the warehouse, illuminating the loft for them.

Once Berserker and Sunspot reached the top of the metal ladder, they started walking towards the sound of the voices.

Suddenly, the feminine voice screamed, and then it was quickly cut off. Too swiftly, too soon, like someone had knocked the person out.

Sunspot looked back at Berserker, and instantly, though they hated each other, they seemed to get a message from each other's eyes and they both tore off running toward he sound of the voices, now just the two different masculine ones.

The voices quieted down, hearing the pounding of running feet on the metal loft above.

Ray and Roberto reached the end of the loft and looked down, right into the waiting blue and brown eyes of the men.

One of the men was Asian. He had short cut black hair, silky and smooth, and was the owner of the brown eyes. He wore a leather jacket and black pants, along with worn shoes. The other was American, with blonde hair and blue eyes. He wore a denim jacket that was un-zipper, with a wife beater underneath, as well as blue jeans that had huge holes above the knees and dirty white tennis shoes. They both looked up at Sunspot and Berserker with the slightest bit of fear in their eyes, but when they saw that they were only kids, not something worse like police, they smiled menacingly, at the same time,

The Asian man pulled something out of his jacket's pocket. He hoisted it up to his eye level and slanted it to point at Berserker's head.

Immediately Berserker's fists clenched. Above the two men, a light bulb burst and the electricity flowed down and shocked the man with the gun, causing him to pulled the trigger out of surprise, but instead of hitting Berserker or Sunspot, the bullets started to whiz around wildly around the run.

Sunspot ducked down behind one of the wooden boxes to shield himself from the bullets. He saw Berserker still standing, his eyes glowing white and the electricity surging around him. Sunspot considered with himself whether or not to pull Berserker down behind the crates with him. Sure, he hated the guy, but it wasn't enough to see him killed.

Sunspot tugged Berserker down, only to get shocked by the electricity in the process. He did manage to pull him down , though.

Sunspot started to massage his newly electrified hands, which only made Berserker smile. He knew that he would get Sunspot back soon enough for pushing him to the floor.

His smile instantly faded away as he remembered their mission, and remembered the two men down there.

He peeked over the crate to see the Asian man on the floor, unconscious. The blonde guy was standing up woozily, looking around the room in a daze. He stumbled over to a few boxes, and pulled something out from behind them.

Berserker gasped when he realized what it was. It was a girl. It had to be the girl they were looking for.

She had black hair that was cut in a bob. Her skin was tanned like the Asian man's. She had cuts on her face and arms, as well as a few good sized bruises. The girl's clothes were torn and dirty, as was the rest of her body.

Berserker said to Sunspot, "Call everybody on the walkie-talkie and tell them that we found the girl. Tell them to get over to Warehouse Three immediately."

And with that being said, he cautiously moved over to the ladder and slipped down it, trying to be as quiet as possible.

As the man was putting a backpack over his shoulder, Berserker snuck up behind him and put a hand on his back. Electricity gathered around his hand, and as the man turned around, Berserker let out his full power, shocking the man's entire body.

"Mutie," the man gasped as Berserker's eyes filled with white light. "Just like the girl. A mutant."

Berserker's electric hold on the man died down a little when the man said those words. "Mutie"? Was that a new slang word for mutants? This made Berserker become even more, well, berserk, and he unleashed even more power on the man, draining him of nearly every ounce of power he had.

Meanwhile, Sunspot had picked up the walkie-talkie and had called up everyone on it. All of the walkie-talkies were connected, so everyone would get the message.

Storm was the first to say something. "Does someone have a clue as to where the girl is?"

After a few seconds of watching Berserker electrify the blonde man, Sunspot answered, still watching him in a bit of a daze, "Y-yeah. The girl is in Warehouse Three. Get here as fast as you can."

"Warehouse three, right?" Storm inquired into the walkie-talkie, but something else had grabbed Sunspot's attention.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something below him move. His head snapped toward the movement and landed on a shadow. He followed the shadow to the Asian man. He was reaching for his gun.

"Roberto?" Came Storm's voice from the walkie-talkie. But the device was already abandoned.

"Kid?" Wolverine's voice spoke through the crackle of the talking gadget. "Kid, are ya still there?"

Wolverine, Storm and the remaining New Mutants all ran at the same time toward the loading docks.

Wolverine and Cannonball were the closest to the loading docks, but it still took them a few minutes to get there. They entered Warehouse Three and started running toward the flashing lights of Berserker's powers. They could hear grunting coming from the man who was being electrified, and it echoed like the horrible noise or an animal killing something through the whole warehouse.

Multiple and Magma arrived only seconds later, and saw the dark silhouettes of Wolverine and Cannonball down farther down the warehouse. They started to run after them.

Ray was still concentrating on electrifying the man. He figured that since the man had called him a "mutie" and had said "just like the girl", that they had beaten up on the girl for being a mutant, and this made him even more angry.

The blonde guy's hair and arms were sizzling, as well as his clothes. He had the most pained expression on his face, and he turned his head and looked down at Berserker with a mixture of fear and beseech, pleading him to stop. But even with that look, Berserker wouldn't stop. He kept his hand on the man's back and kept electrifying him painfully, unaware of the Asian man behind him.

Berserker was normally not the kind of person to cry, but he was so mad at this moment. He felt a hot tear on his cheek, and quickly it mixed with the electricity. The electricity singed his tear, and evaporated it into smoke.

The Asian man picked up the gun, and cocked it at the back of Berserker's head. He put his hand in the right places on the handgun. The man lace two of his fingers around trigger guard and put his index finger on the trigger.

Wolverine and Cannonball heard the shot from their position I the middle of the warehouse. Cannonball stopped in a cold sweat, un-able to move another inch.

Wolverine looked down the direction of the flashing electricity and saw the lights fading.

"No," he growled. "No!"

Wolverine tore off down the warehouse, not even seeing if Cannonball was following him.

Something pulled Cannonball back to his senses. Something pushed against him, and the thing fell to the floor with an "Umph!", and many Jamie duplicates spread out around the floor.

Amara came up behind him and grabbed Sam's hand, then turned him toward her. "What happened?" She inquired forcefully, tears on the brim of her eyes.

Sam shook his head, and started to run after Wolverine, Magma and Multiple, along with his duplicates, doing the same.

They found Wolverine standing in shock, looking out over the scene. The blonde man's back was bloody, and he was laying on his stomach, his arms outstretched. There was a tanned-skinned girl in the corner, shifting slightly, but not awake.

But what really surprised all of them was Ray. He was standing above the injured blonde man, with a mixed look on his face. He wasn't happy, or sad, or surprised, or angry. He seemed to be all of these emotions at once

And he didn't have a bullet in his head.

There was a bullet laying a few feet away from the wall on the left side of the room. It was lonely and small, it sat there. No blood was on it, it had taken no one's life.

Slowly, Berserker turned around. His head was woozy and he felt like he was going to pass out, but he had to see it to make sure it was true.

And it was.

Sunspot stood under one of the solar windows, the half-moon's light streaming in onto his body. His sun-like form turned back to normal, and he was sweating and panting like crazy. He looked at Ray and smiled, ever so slightly, then, from all of the action and work, he fainted.

Ray stared a him for a moment longer, then felt his body sway, and soon he was on the floor into the world of unconsciousness, nothing but black and more black.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

The next day was a bright and sunny one at Xavier's, with the light wind rustling the tress slightly, blowing on the wind chimes that a few of the students had put out a while back. The wind chimes made a calming noise, something very light, that made the place seem happy.

Inside the mansion kids sat in the rec. room or at the kitchen table, waiting for news.

Ray had already woken up, and a few minutes later so did Roberto. The looked at each other wearily, Ray especially still not being able to grasp what had happened the night before.

Roberto noticed the look Ray was giving him, and he said, in a surprisingly calm voice. "You know, man, I'm not that horrible. I wasn't going to sit around and watch you die."

Ray continued to stare at him, then in a quiet voice he said. "Yeah. . .thanks. But you know this doesn't solve much between us. I won't hate you anymore, but you know we can never be best friends." He smiled at the comment, imagining him and Roberto battling it out in a game of basketball or an insult fight.

Roberto chuckled, thinking about possible outcomes of arguments as well. "Yeah, I know that. Not that I ever wanted to be."

Ray smiled, and was about to say something else when the Professor walked in with Hank and Logan.

"Ah, so I see you are awake," he told them. "Good thing. The girl, Xi'an, is still unconscious, but Beast told me that she will be awake in no time."

Ray had been wondering this ever since they had got to the dock, and now was the time to ask. "What happened to her, exactly?"

The Professor sighed. "I suppose you have the right to know. I won't tell you everything, just a bit. Xi'an was coming to America from Vietnam with her brothers, sister and mother. They were taken captive by those men you saw and a few other's,. and Xi'an's mother was killed, as well as her siblings. I located her on Cerebro and she was almost dead as well, which is why I called an emergency recruiting mission."

Ray and Roberto let this sink in for a minute. Now this made sense. Having an emergency recruiting mission to save someone's life.

Roberto had two more questions.

One: "What exactaly did I do?"

The Professor smiled and answered immediately. "You absorbed energy from the moon. Since you hadn't done it before, all of the concentration and power knocked you out."

And two:

"What was yesterday?"

"Friday."

"And when were we supposed to pick Rahne up?"

"Yesterday at seven. Sorry you couldn't go. I sent Beast to pick her up, along with Shadowcat and Nightcrawler."

"Awe man," Roberto whispered.

But despite his efforts to make it really quiet, Ray still knew what he said and how he felt, and he burst out laughing. Yes, some thing never change.

"But hey," Ray said, between laughs. "At least we made it the the X-Men. Right?'

"Yep," Wolverine told them. "Nice job, kids."

**I thought that I would end this chappie on a bit of a happier note considering what happened. XD! Anyway, much thanks to IronSavior, who gave me the suggestion of adding M and Wither. And also thanks to Zunpip who gave me the idea to use Karma. Thanks! :D! And dang was that a long chapter! Hope it didn't scare you away! XD!**

**Here's a little description of the next part!: Legion, the Professor's multi-personality son, comes back and his mind is set on getting revenge on Professor X. Meanwhile, Karma is starting to settle into the Mansion life. Kitty is trying to get Piotr to be more open and become her friend, which leads to some funny consequences.**

**And if you have any ideas of what could happen later in the story I would love to hear it. I already have most of the ideas done.**


	4. Revenge of the Son, Part One, Intro

**I owe Capt. Liam X a thank you, because you really helped me with understanding Legion. Wikipedia and other info websites are just a little hard to understand sometimes. XD!**

**Sorry it took me so long to get these three chapters up. :(**** For one, I am going to start putting up an "episode" at a time, so basically three chapters at a time. And that does count for "two-parters", if I ever make one of those. And about not posting for what, a month and a half, I've been kind of busy, and I had trouble deciding what to actually do in these chapters, and in the end I just decided to go the easy route. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men: Evolution, or any other form of X-Men for that matter.**

_A medium sized young man walked cautiously, but confidently, up to the black steel gate. He held out his hand, and the gate began to open outward to him. A small, almost menacing smile played at the young man's lips as he entered the large grounds. He walked carefully along the dirt pathway, eyeing the bushes and trees as he passed, for signs of anything threatening. _

_This young man had blonde hair that was in a pretty long cut for a male's, but it suited him perfectly. He had a brown vest on over a long sleeved, buttoned up white top, with brown pants that fanned out a little bit at the end, and pointy brown shoes._

_The young man stepped up to the mansion and looked around for something. He spotted it, actually two of what he was looking for. The young man was suddenly replaced by a little boy, with the same color hair and eyes. He was a younger version of the man, that looked maybe the way he would have looked when he was eight or nine. He wore a blue sweatshirt, and jeans. The blonde boy raised his arms, and suddenly, two security cameras burst into flames._

_The boy was replaced by the man again, who surveyed the damage and smiled. He walked up to the large double doors of the huge building, and, right as he stepped two feet away from the doors, they opened wide and he proceeded inside the building._

_Once inside, the young man looked around at his surroundings. He was in a big, open room, complete with fancy looking couches and chairs, along with red carpets and scarlet curtains in front of the windows. The floors were a rich brown-red color. There was a large staircase facing you just as you walked into the large building. They were an impressive stone that resembled marble._

_Once the man was finished looking around, he scowled a little. This place was too fancy, too rich. It had too much stuff, and he knew, too many kids. Kids that weren't even the children of the adults at this place. That made his frown grow deeper._

_The young man concentrated on one thing, and one thing alone: the person he was looking for. After five seconds, he started walking toward the stairs._

_At the top, the young man looked around to find three separate hallways. They each had the ruby carpet running down to the end of the hall, then out and down the stairs that he had just walked up, and similar stairs in the back of the mansion. The carpets stopped at the doors, the front door and the back door, which were also very similar._

_The young man knew that he had to go down the hallway on the right, so he made a swift turn and started walking down the hallway, to the third door on the left side._

_The door was like the rest in the hall, dark mahogany, embroidered with clean cut edges, making the basic two square pattern, one sitting just an inch above the other, each filling out just an inch to the end of the door._

_The door opened and the blonde walked inside. He looked at his surroundings to find that they were just as lavish as the rest of the large house. The walls were the same red-brown wood and there were lamps on the walls. There were also lamps beside the bed, just incase the person who used the room wanted some late night reading or something of the sort._

_The young blonde smiled hardheartedly, and walked over to the bed. He looked down and saw the form of a sleeping figure. A man. A man much older than him, by at least twenty years. His head held no hair, and he slept in nice, neat pajamas. But something was wrong about the man. He had an expression on his face that let the blonde know that he wasn't truthfully sleeping. _

"_Father, why would you want to play games with me?" The young man asked quietly._

_The man's eyes snapped open, and he looked up at the blonde. _

_The older man looked into the young man's eyes. He recognized them. They were the same as his. The shaped, the color. Their noses matched as well. But some things were also terribly different, their beliefs for one._

"_Dav---" the older man started, but was cut off by the younger man._

"_Don't call me that," the young man said through gritted teeth, trying not to make much noise._

"_David, listen---"_

"_No! You listen to me. I told you: do not call me that!" The blonde shouted, and abruptly a book flew by his head and hit the older man on the left side of his head, right next to his temple. The older man fell to the bed, unconscious._

_The young man held out his hand, and instantly the unconscious bald man began to float into the air. The blonde walked out of the room, the unconscious man in air floating behind him._

_Finally, he'd get his revenge. _


	5. Revenge of the Son, Part Two

"Charles!"

"Professor!"

"Chuck!"

These calls could be heard from the front lawns of the mansion. All different voices, screaming different things. Most of them were screaming "Professor", but a few were different. But it was certain. They were all anxious. And worried.

A tall African woman walked down one of the many hallways of the mansion. She looked around widely at the surroundings and picked up her pace. She was so focused on only one thing that she barely noticed the girl walking down the center of the hallway, holding a piece of paper and a small suitcase in her hand. The African weather goddess stopped right in front of the girl and looked down at her.

"Sorry, Xi'an," the tall white-haired woman told the girl. The girl herself was much different than the African woman. The girl was short, had short black hair cut in a bob, and her eyes were brown. She was also only fifteen, twelve years younger than the woman, who would then be twenty seven.

"It's alright," the girl, Xi'an said. "And you can call me 'Shan', instead of "Shee-ahn". I don't mind, and I kind of like it."

The woman nodded and hastily opened the door nearest to her and looked inside the room. It was one of the students rooms. Monet's, and now, also Shan's. There were two beds, one on the right side of the room that was the first thing you saw when you first went in to the room, and then another bed on the left that you saw when you looked around. The walls in the room were half-way covered in glossy red-brown wood, and then the top half was a baby blue sort of color. The bed on the left side of the room was covered with dark red pillows and a dark red comforter, as well as there were a few personal accessories around the bed.

A girl about the age of sixteen sat on the bed on the right side of the room, reading a thick novel. The girl had tanned skin and very long black hair. She had earphones in her ears, and a black iPod Nano was sitting right next to her on the bed. She didn't seem to notice the African woman come in, or Shan.

"Monet," the white-haired woman said. She got no answer as Monet kept reading her book.

So the white-haired woman said louder, "Monet!"

The dark haired girl's head snapped up, and she took out one of her earphones, "What is it, Storm?"

This question seemed to come out a little---or a lot---rude, but the tall African woman, Storm, seemed unfazed by it. "Have you seen the Professor?"

"No," Monet answered quickly.

Storm nodded and turned around, almost running into Shan again.

"Oh, so sorry," Storm said, almost hysterical. Shan and Monet could tell that she was worried sick, on the verge of a small breakdown. It's not everyday your school headmaster goes missing, and you have no clues as to where he is.

"It's okay," Shan said, and she reached up, even stood on her tip-toes, and put her hand gently on Storm's shoulder. She squeezed it.

"You'll find him. I mean, you found me, right?"

Storm had to smile at the reassurance. "Yes. That is true."

Shan nodded and moved her hand off of Storm's shoulder, reducing her back to her original height.

Storm smiled and walked past Shan, to go look in another room for the Professor, not that she, or anyone else, had any hope of finding him.

Shan looked around the room. Homey, warm. It gave her a feeling that she had not had in a long time. Hope. She felt pleasant. She hadn't had a home like this since. . .a very long time. It was amazing.

Shan looked over to Monet, who was laying on her bed with her book rest on her chest. She looked at Shan intently, then spoke.

"What do you want?"

Shan was taken aback a little, mainly because of the rudeness in the girls voice. She didn't even know the girl, and yet the girl was acting like her and Shan were enemies.

"This is my room," Shan said, holding up the piece of paper she had in her hand. The rooms, to make it easier for new students, had numbers written on plane white paper put on them. They would be taken down any day now, but for Shan, they kept them up. After all, the mansion was a big place. Easy to get lost in.

And Shan had been in the infirmary for a week. Due to her injuries, the Professor didn't want her to move much anytime soon after that. But that morning, Wolverine had come in and handed her the little slip of paper, telling her that she was free to go find her room. So that's exactly what she did. She knew that Professor's intentions were good, but she was tired of sitting in bed and reading and watching T.V. and eating soup all day. She wanted to get up and do something. Meet some new people. But if any of the rest of them were like M, she wasn't so sure she wanted to meet them.

"Oh," Monet said. "You get that bed, then."

She gestured her hand to the bed on the left side or the room, right in front of Shan.

She put her headphones back in, and said, "Don't disturb me."

And that was that. So much for meeting new people. If her roommate was like this, Shan was afraid of what some of the other kids might have been like.

Shan walked over to the bed and quickly unpacked her few possessions. Five shirts, most worn, the only one that was slightly new was one of them, a simple t-shirt that was black. Four pairs of pants. One pair of shorts. A week's worth of underwear, and a few pairs of socks. She lastly pulled out two books written in Vietnamese that he mother had given her, a picture of her family, and a small toy that she had been given many years ago by her younger siblings for her birthday.

Shan stared at the portrait of her family for a long time. It was a year old, right before they fell way below the poverty line. A few months after that they decided to go to America, because after all, it was never too late to go to the country of the free.

And that's when everything went wrong. On that boat. Shan hated that place.

"Do I have anywhere to put my clothes?" She asked Monet. After she got no response, she asked louder.

In return, Shan received a, "Just not in the dresser with my clothes. Or on my side of the room."

Shan stared at her, then decided to leave the room. Like almost everyone else at the mansion, M was too much to be around.

She left in hopes of finding someone to talk to that she actually liked.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

Meanwhile, Storm had checked all of the rooms on the second floor, and was in a nearly panic state.

She went down the wooden staircase down to the Professor's office, and found Logan, Jean, Cyclops and Beast already in there.

The Professor's office was roomy and very neat. Nothing was out of place, nothing was messy. He had everything neatly placed in file folders, from the students profiles to the shopping list for the next trip to the supermarket. The walls of the Professor's office were the mahogany wood that covered a lot of the mansion. The floors were complete with blue and white carpet. When you opened the door to his office everything was bright, as there were windows behind the Professor's desk, big long ones that stretched from the floor to the ceiling, as well as these windows on half of the left and right sides of the room. The Professor's desk was made of dark brown wood, and on it was a few file folders, three the color blue and two the plain whitish-peach kind.

"Any trace of him?" Logan asked.

Storm shook her head. She felt tears welding up in her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away with the white sleeve of her shirt.

"Why would the Professor just leave and not tell us?" Jean inquired. Of course, no one knew an answer to that question.

"I doubt Charles left just because he wanted to," Storm said, pacing around the room ever so silently. Thinking. She knew the Professor wouldn't just leave and go somewhere without telling them first. It was the kind of irresponsible behavior he tried to teach the children not to have.

"We know he wouldn't do that," Scott said. "There has to be a note somewhere."

Wolverine grunted. "We already checked his bedroom, his office, the living room, and even the rec. room and living room. There's nothing there."

"What would have happened to him?" Jean asked.

There was silence for a few minutes as everyone though. In the past, when someone disappeared without a trace, it was usually because. . .

Scott was the first to say it. "Do you think he might have been kidnapped?"

He looked around to his fellow mutants, who were mostly thinking the same thing. Well, now they were all thinking the same thing, but not wanting to think that it might actually be true.

"But it's Charles Xavier," Storm argued. "How could anyone kidnap him?"

"What else could it be, then?" Scott asked, and the room was filled with silence once more.

"I don't know. . ." Storm said. "But last time the Professor was able to track the kidnapped mutants. Now, I'm not so sure we can locate him."

There was silence in the room for a while. Scott, Jean, Ororo, Logan and Hank were trying to figure out just what exactly was going on. By now, they all figured that the Professor had indeed be kidnapped, but by who, or even what, was uncertain. No normal person could just waltz right into the giant mansion and take the headmaster.

"I could do it," Jean spoke up.

Scott turned toward her. "No, Jean. It's too dangerous."

Jean shook her head. "No, it's not. Scott, I---"

"No way, Red," Wolverine said, interrupting her sentence. "Yer not doin' this. Cerebro is too powerful. It can only be operated the Professor."

Jean shook her head again. "No! I can operate it. I'm a telepath, too."

"Jean, your powers- aren't strong enough," Beast said. "Yet, at least. We'd need to have more time to work with them."

"I can do it!" Jean said, shaking her head from side to side. Thinking of what she'd be doing, helping the Professor, kept he arguing. She knew that she was the only one who had a chance to find the Professor. Jean thought of the Professor, and her eyes filled up with tears. She thought of all that he had taught her: how to use her powers, and even other values of life. And how he comforted her, even if he didn't know that. Through her powers he touched her, and she had been his first student, besides Storm and Logan. Then came Scott, then Kurt, then Kitty, then Evan, then Rogue, the 'New Mutants', and now, the new team of students. But she had been the first, even though she only beat Scott by a month.

Scott stood awkwardly next to Jean, looking at her red and sobbing face, contemplating on what to do.

He put his arms on her shoulders, and Jean let herself lean back into his arms, against his chest. Scott smiled, too. He really did love Jean. Maybe sometime soon he'd actually ask her out on a date. An official one. And not just to the movies, either. No, something more special. He'd let her choose.

"Please, I must. I'm the only one who can."

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

Kitty Pryde checked the timer on the stove for the hundredth time. She sighed as the time said about five minutes were left. Kitty shifted on the balls of her feet, waiting impatiently for the timer to go off.

_Now?_

No.

_Now?_

No.

_Now?_

No.

See, Kitty had virtually nothing to do on this particular day. After the commotion with the Professor had settled down and everyone stopped looking for him, the teachers, and Jean and Scott, went into the Professor's office to discuss matters. This left the students to fend for themselves with things to do. It wasn't hard for most of them. Bobby, Ray, Roberto, Jamie and Kurt went out on to the front lawn and started to play soccer, which was getting more mutant infested by the minute. Sparks of electricity were flying everywhere, and little duplicate Jamies were running amok. It wouldn't be long before the whole game started to turn mutated.

Monet had disappeared to her room, where she normally was. Kevin, another new recruit, had as well. Rogue had gone out to the bookstore, but didn't want to hitch a ride with Danni, Amara, Jubilee and Rahne as they headed to the music store. Neither did Kitty. Kitty didn't feel like music today. She didn't feel like books, she didn't feel like much of anything. Just cooking. Poor everyone else.

As Kitty's mind started to wander off and reflect, she thought about how cut off Rogue now seemed to be from everyone else. True, she was better than a few months ago, when she had risen Apocalypse, but she still didn't seem out there at all. She barely talked to anyone, and although she didn't talk about going away, Kitty couldn't help but wonder if she would.

Suddenly, a deep, accented voice broke through her thoughts. "You might vant to vatch more carefully. You almost burnt zese."

Kitty's head snapped over, and she found herself looking at Piotr Rasputin. Well, more like Piotr's chest. She looked up and saw his face, shining in the sun. Suddenly, Kitty felt her face become hot. She felt like a complete idiot for leaving the muffins in too long, as she could smell them burning a little bit. And in front of Piotr, none the less.

Piotr was wearing simple brown pants and a blue shirt. He wore the blue oven mitts that belonged to the Professor. Well, technically, they belonged to everyone at the Institute, because everyone could use them, but the Professor had paid for them.

Kitty liked Piotr. True---thought she might not admit it, well at least to just anyone---she had a crush on him, but it was more than just that. Piotr was different than a lot of boys she knew. He was kind, and seemed to generally care about everyone around him, even if they didn't share the same feelings. He seemed to want nothing more than to protect people. But the big Russian was also very quiet. He hadn't talked much to anyone since he had come to the Institute. Kitty hoped that he felt excepted, because to almost everyone, he was. In a place like the mansion, everyone knew just everything about anyone. They knew his story, and they knew he wasn't a bad guy.

"Oh," Kitty said. "Thanks for getting them out,. How you know?"

"I could zmell it," Piotr replied, setting the tray of just-saved muffins on the counter. He removed the over mitts from his hands and set them next to the tray.

Kitty's face smelled a little. How could she not have smelled that?

"But my mozer alvays used to bake for my siblings and I. I zometimes used to help her."

This brought a small, sad frown to Piotr's face. He was remembering something. A memory of the past. Something he hadn't remembered in quite a while. He remembered the smell of his mom's cooking, a smell that came from the time when he was seven-years-old. The same age his sister had been. He remembered his mom telling him to take the cookies out of the oven, but he had forgot to put the oven mitts on, and he had burned his hands. The cookie tray had fallen to the floor, and for the next hour, his mother didn't care. She just cared about making Piotr feel better. She left the cookies on the floor for that hour, and tended to Piotr's wound. Piotr had then felt better after a little remedies, and he went back to sit by the kitchen table. His mother cleaned up the mess, but handed Piotr a nearly crumbled cookie. He had taken it to show his gratitude, and was surprised when his mom took a half-cookie from the tray and sat down at the table across from his, and smiled. She stuck it in her mouth, grabbed another cookie, the last glass of milk, and they ate the cookies until they couldn't anymore. This memory always made Piotr smile. It was a happy, carefree time in his life. Years before he became a mutant.

Kitty noticed the sad expression on Piotr's face. Her body filled with a sad feeling too. She didn't want him to be sad. Him of all people. It saddened her too.

"Hey, if you want, you can have one fresh and hot off the tray," Kitty said, reaching out and picking up an over mitt. She put it on her right hand, then plucked one of the blueberry muffins off of the tray.

"I know they won't be as good as your mom's, but still, they're hot out of the oven." Kitty added a reassuring smile at the end.

Piotr looked at her face, and noticed her bright, welcoming smile. He reached out and took the muffin gently from Kitty's gloved hand. But the heat of the fresh muffin burned his hand, and he drop it to the blue tile floor.

"Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry!" Kitty said, frantic. She bent down and picked the muffin off of the floor. Her face was burning bright red, but Piotr didn't seem to notice.

He already had the other oven mitt already on his large left hand.

Piotr reached out and gently picked the blueberry muffin out of Kitty's hand, very softly.

He reflected on that moment in the kitchen with his mother. He knew Kitty wasn't his mother, very far from it in fact, but the muffin falling to the ground, and Kitty picking it up, reminded him of his mother doing that so long ago.

"No, it's just perfect."

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

Shan walked down one of the halls of the Institute. It was now around one o'clock, and some of the students hadn't been present for lunch. Amara, Rahne, Danni and Jubilee. They had gone out to the mall at about eleven o'clock, stating that they would be spending most of the day the, walking around and eating lunch. They said they would be back for dinner, so around six. Which wasn't for another five hours.

Shan was bored. She had hoped to talk to some of the girls, but they were all gone or engaged in something else. The girl with the stripes in her hair, Rogue, had gone to the town to the bookstore, and she would probably be gone for a while. And besides, Shan had noticed that Rogue wasn't exactly the open type. Shan had passed the kitchen and saw Kitty talking with Piotr, which was after the whole muffin incident. Apparently, Piotr was now talking to her about cookies, promising to teach her a famous Russian recipe that his mother used to make. Shan didn't want to talk to M, for obvious reasons, and doubted that Monet wanted to talk to her.

That left the boys, Kevin had retreated to his room as was normal. She really didn't know what the other boys were doing until she passed them in the hall.

"Hey, you're Xi'an right?" One of them asked. She remembered his name from the style and colors of his hair. There was a blonde crew cut on the back and the sides, and then on the front was a wisp of dyed orange hair. She knew his name was Ray, and the name somehow resembled his hair. And it definitely resembled his mutant power, even though it wasn't his codename.

She nodded. "Just call me Shan."

"Can do," Ray said. "What are you doing?"

The question caught Shan off guard. She had heard the question before, mainly from men on the boat she rode to the United States on. They always wanted to know what her and her family were doing. But Shan calmed down when she realized the question didn't sound menacing in any way.

"Nothing really," she said. "I don't really have much to do. . ."

Ray smiled, "Well, we're going swimming, So if you want to come out and join us, we'll be out back in the swimming pool."

The boys walked off, getting farther and farther down the hallway. They turned at the end, heading to their rooms to change into their swimming trunks.

Shan thought about this for a minute. Should she go and hang out with the boys, or would that be a little awkward. She had mostly had girls for friends back in Vietnam, except for a select few boys that had been her friends since they were little.

_No_, she decided. _It's wouldn't be weird at all._

After all, if she had been friends with the boys back in her neighborhood back in Vietnam, she could probably make easy friends with these boys.

Shan then noted that she needed a bathing suit. She knew she didn't have one. She knew how to swim, but her bathing suit was something that she had left behind in Vietnam, due to the fact that she could only take one suitcase of stuff. For a short moment, Shan thought about asking Monet for a bathing suit, but quickly knocked that thought out of her head, because she knew that Monet wouldn't let her barrow anything of hers.

Shan knew that people often did swim with a shirt and shorts, so she decided to use her one pair of shorts and biggest shirt. It was going to be worth it, after all. Shan really wanted to at least talk to some of the kids here, even if she could only talk to the boys.

Shan went back to her and Monet's room, relieved to find that Monet was somewhere else at that moment. She quickly changed into her large white t-shirt and shorts, then headed down to the swimming pool, hoping that she could make easy friends with the boys.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

She didn't care what they thought. She was going to do it. She had a mission. She had the right to do this. They couldn't stop her. _And why would they want to? _She wondered. They had to find him, and there was no other way.

The red-head had managed to slip out of their sight after the meeting was over. Cyclops had gone to the kitchen for a drink of water. Storm, Beast and Wolverine had stayed in the office, still discussing matters. As if they could do anything. She knew this. She knew what she had to do. She knew she wasn't as powerful as the Professor, but she was still the only resident telepath. And they weren't coming up with any other ideas.

She had reached the room she wanted. It was at the end of a long metal hallway. There were various rooms on each side of the hallway, and the hallway spread out the whole length of the mansion, being the only hallway on the lower level. The rooms were all big, therefore took up the whole space on the most low level of the Institute.

The door in front of her was big, and silver, light reflecting off of the metal. A big X crossed both of the doors. It was round, and came to a more square shape at the bottom.

The red-head put her hand on a scanner. It looked like the headlight from a car, only blue, without as much glare.

A mechanical voice from somewhere to her left said, "Welcome, Jean Grey."

The big metal doors opened, splitting the X in half, so it looked like more of a vertical V.

Before her there was a long strip of metal path, hanging above a very large hole. The hole reached twenty feet down. The room was silver, and shaped like a ball. If there was a giant kid, he would have had fun ripping the room out of the mansion and bounding it around on the ground, crushing all of the houses and shops in the town. And the schools. The kids would like that. On the end of the path there was a large computer, with an odd looking headset resting next to it.

Jean walked down the metal pathway, to the computer.

Once she got there, she reached out and took the odd headset and put it on carefully. She pressed a few buttons on the computer's keyboard and suddenly, a world map appeared in front of her. Yellow and blue dots floated on the page, most of them being yellow.

Jean pressed another button on the keyboard, and instantly the yellow dots disappeared. Only the blue dots were left. Jean stood there for a minute, baffled. These blue dots were all of the mutants in the world. Many more than she ever thought there'd be.

A great deal of the blue dots were centered around a point on the map, on the continent of North America. There was a white line pointing to the clump of blue dots, and it was labeled "Bayville, New York". There was also red dots amidst these blue dots.

Across the Atlantic Ocean of the map, there was another fairly large clump of blue dots on the west side of the continent of Europe. Jean didn't realize this, but this place was also labeled: "Wick, Scotland". It was one of the only two places on the map that was labeled. There were also red dots within the blue array. If Jean had had more time to pay attention to the map, she would have been curious, and might have even clicked on the label. But right now, she didn't even notice it.

There were various other red dots throughout the whole map, but not many.

Jean moved the mouse of the computer and clicked on the spot that said, "Bayville, New York."

She scrolled down on the page. There was a picture and a name for every mutant in the Bayville area. There was a picture of the mutant on the left side of the screen, and the name, last name first, then a comma, then the first name and finally the middle name, on the right side of the screen. Each of these took up the whole width of the computer, but only about an inch down, so six or so could fit on the screen at a time.

_Allerdyce, Alvers, Aquilla, Caliban, Callisto, Coy, Crisp. . ._

Jean's eyebrows furrowed and she scrolled down faster.

_Sinclair, Smith, Summers, St. Croix, Wagner, X-23. . ._

And finally, _Xavier_.

Jean felt her body start to get hot as she clicked on the "Xavier, Charles Francis" link on the screen.

Instantly, a page opened up. It had all sorts of information on Charles Francis Xavier, but Jean looked wildly around for a button that was specially made for her. He remembered Professor Xavier making it for her, and teaching her how to use it. She knew she could do it. He had told her that if she ever needed to use it, she could, and that it would be easier than using Cerebro like he did.

She found the button. A purple rectangular button on the bottom right corner of the screen.

Right as she pressed it, Jean heard a desperate male's voice cry out her name.

By the time he could even get twenty feet away from her, she was already crouching on the ground from a throbbing headache. Jean clutched her head in her hands, holding it in place right above the ears, near her temples.

Strong masculine hands pried the head device off of her head, and someone knelt down by her side.

"Why did you do that, Jean?" The male asked desperately.

Jean looked up to the red visors that blocked his eye, and said in a weak voice, "I know where he is, Scott."

**Dun, dun, dun! Now go to the next part and find out what happens. You know you want to. **


	6. Revenge of the Son, Part Three

The room was dark. And damp. And silent. The only noise was the air of a vent.

An old man sat in a chair on the left side or the room, a rag tied over his mouth, something brown and gangly trying his hands to the chair. There was a large door across the room from him, closed tightly, but otherwise, the room was bare. He stared straight ahead. There was barely a single thing that could faze the bald man now. He knew what was happening. He had actually been expecting it for a while. He knew that the kid had not given up. Why would he? Lame fatherhood would never go unnoticed by the child.

He could have fought. True, his body was forever retained to a wheelchair, but that didn't mean that he didn't have very witty tricks up his sleeve. Being a mutant, and a powerful one at that, he could manipulate people's minds to make them do or think whatever he wanted to. But the thing with this man was that he didn't particularly like to do this. He respected people's personal privacy, and wanted to let them keep it. That's why he rarely read people's minds unless they let him. He rarely controlled their minds. He thought that they had the rights to whatever they did. Even if it was bad. This could have been a good thing or a bad thing.

There was a click, and the large metal on the opposite side of the room from the man swung open. A man of an average height walked in, followed by two other males. One had wild orange hair, and the other was very big, with large muscles showing out of his red costume. He wore an odd half-circular helmet over his head, so you wouldn't have been able to make out what he looked like, even if you wanted to. And for telepaths like the bald man in the chair, you couldn't read, or doing anything else for that matter, to the man in red's mind.

The man in the red was carrying three figures in his arms. He carried them with ease, as if each of them only weighed the weight of a feather. Combined, the people in his arms would have weighed around 350 American pounds, give or take a few pounds. The orange-haired male, who only looked to be eighteen or nineteen, carried another person.

The man in red and the male with the orange hair dropped the people on the ground in a corner next to the door. The people they dropped out of their arms were all girls. One was an Asian girl of an average height. Another was a girl with light coca skin, probably from somewhere in South America. The last girl that used to be in the large man's arms was a short girl, with short red hair tied in two low pony-tails. The girl that was in the other male's hands was Native American, her long hair tied back in a long braid with what looked like animal skin with a few beads tied to it, but it was probably something she had found in a store.

The bald man looked at the kids, with a look of worry on his face.

Finally, after a tense silent, the man in front walked up to the bald man. He crouched down and looked him strait in the eyes.

"Miss me, father?"

The man knew this wasn't a question to answer, but more of a snide comment directed at him to make him feel bad. But this bald man was not one so easily fooled.

_David, you have me, what do you want with the girls?_ The bald man asked this with his telepathy, mainly because he had a piece of cloth tied around his mouth to prevent him from talking, but also because he didn't want the two other men to hear what he was saying.

The blonde man, David, smiled coldly and walked around slowly to the back of the bald man's chair. The bald man tried to follow him with his eyes, but the man disappeared out of his peripheral vision.

"You should know why, old man," came a reply from behind him.

Then he felt something cold on his neck, and a hand clenched it's self around his throat. He struggled to look downward, even though he knew what had been placed on his neck. He was right, as he normally was. There was the cold metal blade of a knife huddled closely to his neck, nearly cutting him.

There was a swift slash that sounded like the cutting of a soft fruit or vegetable, and instantly there was a cut on the bald man's neck, running from his Adam's apple, to about five centimeters on the right of his neck.

David put one of his hands on the bald man's head and forced it backwards, so the man was looking up at the ceiling. David's head moved into view. "Don't ask any more stupid questions, Xavier."

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

"So, he's in Canada, Red?" A gruff voice asked. It was none other than Wolverine.

The red-head nodded, taking a sip of the water that was in a tall glass before her. Her head still ached from using Cerebro. She had taken some aspirin to help with the matter, but so far it wasn't helping her throbbing head.

"Where in Canada, child?" The white-haired woman known as Storm asked.

"Um. . ." the red-headed Jean shook her head twice with confusion, trying to remember what she had seen. She put her hands on her head and massaged her temples. "Um, Alberta. In an abandoned warehouse."

Logan nodded. "Any other clues?"

Jean recited a very specific location, that even Logan was surprised to hear coming from her. After saying the location, Jean groaned crossed her arms on the table, then set her head down in them.

The man in the red visor's sitting next to her put his hand on her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

Jean nodded and muffled words that no one could hear, then she made another moan.

"I think I should take her to her room," the man in the visors said. At that moment, they were sitting in the kitchen. The sun was now beginning to set, but no lights were on in the kitchen. The silence that had plagued the kitchen for the past few minutes had made everything seem eerie and uncomfortable. The shadows of trees outside swayed on the walls, the leaves and branches of the trees outside moving with the wind.

All six of the occupants of the room stood around a small kitchen table with four seats. Only Jean and the man in the visor sat in the seats, though. Everyone else was too tense to sit down. They all stood, stiff and ready. Two of them, Piotr and Kitty, stood side by side, nearly touching each other, both with the same worried expression on their faces. Wolverine stood farther away from the group, leaning on the counter in front of the microwave. The last person, Storm, stood behind Jean's chair, gripping the back of it.

"Do whatever you want, kid, but we're leaving right now," Wolverine said, and he grabbed his black leather jacket off of the seat by the table next to Jean.

"We need to organize a team," the man in the visor said.

Wolverine sent him a glare. "Chuck is in trouble. We're going now. I'll go, and Storm, and I'm sure Kitty and Colossus won't mind saving him either."

"Like of course I'll save the Professor!" Kitty blurted out.

Piotr nodded. "I will as well. I owe him a lot."

"See?" Wolverine said to the man with the visor, Cyclops. "We have a team. You stay here with Jeanie and the rest of the kids. Order a pizza or something." Wolverine started to walk out the door, Storm, Shadowcat and Colossus in tow, but a set of words stopped them in their tracks.

"They have Jubilee, Danni, Amara and Rahne too."

They all turned their heads and looked at Jean, who looked like she was going to pass out, but still was able to keep her head up while balancing it sideways on her right hand.

"Who does?" Storm asked.

"The people that have the Professor," Jean answered. "David. His son."

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

The Asian girl opened her eyes slowly. She felt a cool sensation on her cheek, and she picked her head up off of the ground. The girl tucked her forearm under her body and hoisted herself into a sitting position. She felt pain on the left side of her head, and started to rub it, hurting it even more. She pulled her hand away from her head and gritted her teeth. There was a large bump on her head, half the size of a tennis ball.

She looked around her, a little dazed, and spotted something that was at first comforting.

The Professor.

But then the Chinese girl got a closer look. He was bound to a chair with ropes, a piece of cloth was tied over his mouth to prevent him from talking, and he had a red splotch on his neck, that she could have only guessed was a cut.

Behind the Professor stood a man of a medium height, with blonde hair, and a crude smile on his face.

The girl tried to scramble up, mainly with fright, but something grabbed her from behind.

She looked up into the face of her captor, and saw a very large man in a red suit. She recognized him, and gasped, but he put his un-normally large hand over her mouth to shut her up.

The blonde man that was standing behind the Professor's chair looked up at the sound of the scrambling.

"So, this is one of your students," he mused. "Jubilation Lee, so my sources tell me."

"Yeah, and what are your sources?" Spat the Chinese girl, Jubilation Lee, or as she preferred to be called, Jubilee.

The man's face flickered with a smile, and he walked out from behind the chair, beginning to saunter toward Jubilee and the monstrous man holding her.

When the blonde man was nearly ten feet away from the two of them, he suddenly grabbed his head and crumpled down onto his knees. He closed his eyes tight and gritted his teeth, his face starting to turn rosy.

Behind him, the man named Charles Xavier was staring hard at him, his mind concentrating on the blonde man, his son, alone.

_David, stop this_, he projected into his son's mind. _We can sort this out. Please, at least let my students go._

Through clenched teeth, the blonde rasped, "No! This can never be sorted out. Don't you understand that? You deserted me. You deserted me, and my mom, and then decided that you would take care of some other kids. Not your son! I won't forgive you for that!"

_David, please_---

"And that's not my name, old man. Stop calling me that." The blonde man opened his eyes again and slowly turned his head toward the crippled old man in the chair. "Now, let me go, or the girl dies."

Xavier looked over at Jubilee, and he sighed. He knew what had to be done.

"Professor, don't do it!" A voice screamed from in the large man's arms.

For the first time, the Professor realized who the man in the red was. He wasn't so surprised, though. He had expected to see the man again. Sometime. And he knew this was the perfect chance for the man to get back at him.

Without a word, the gigantic man with the half-circle helmet over his head his Jubilee over the head with his large fist, and she went limp.

Right as she went limp, the Professor's mental grasp on David loosened. David released his hands, away from his throbbing head. He heard the sound of water in his ears, the blood rushing from the pressure. But at this time it didn't matter.

The blonde stood up from the ground, aided by the man with the wild orange hair. He held his aching head with one hand, the other already occupied on the other man's shoulder, helping him keep himself upright. He wobbled a little, but was able to keep his balance on his own two feet, so he pushed the orange-haired man away.

"Oi! That wasn't very nice, mate!"

"Oh, shut up, Aussie," David growled.

"'Ey, if we're going to be doin' it this way, I can assure you that I will not be your little---"

"Can it, okay?" The big, booming voice of the man in the red said from behind them. "Who we're really worried about here is Xavier."

The blonde man turned around to the bald man, a smirk on his face. "Yes, that you are right, Cain."

The Professor's eyes looked around the room, surveying the people there. Legion, the Juggarnaut, Pyro, Jubilee, Wolfsbane, Mirage, Magma, and of course there was himself.

The blonde man stepped up to the Professor, bent down and put his face right in front of Xavier's, only a few inches away from their nose's touching.

"So, father, tell me. Was it worth it, leaving your son to be raised solely by his mother, without knowing anything about his father, nor if his father was still alive or not?"

Suddenly, the Professor felt pressure on his head. It felt like his brain was being crushed by cement blocks, that wouldn't come off no matter how he tried.

"Leaving that kid's mother with almost no resources as to take care of him?"

The pressure in the Professor's head became harder. He concentrated on pulling the weight off, and for a few seconds it worked, but then the pressure was just added back on. He looked up through nearly scrunched eyes at his son, with wonderment hidden in them. He couldn't figure out, not that he was being cocky, how this boy was beating him inside his head. As far as the Institute knew, the Professor was the most powerful telepath on the face of the planet.

Legion sneered in Xavier's face. "And then, going and taking on the responsibility of raising, what, fifteen more kids, and not even thinking about your own son?"

The weight in the Professor's head hardened even more, and he closed his eyes tight and bent his head with the pain.

He managed to cough out, "David, I didn't---"

"Shut up!" Legion yelled, and unexpectedly the chair that Professor was sitting in levitated off of the ground and flew furiously against the wall.

"My name is not David. My name is Lucas. And you did leave me. Then went and were the father to fifteen other kids. It's time I got back at you. Cain, the Brazilian girl."

Cain Marko, the man in the red suit, pulled Magma up off of the ground, and let her limp body dangle from his right arm. He held his left hand in position to strike the girl.

"David, don't---"

"You're too late, Xavier," Legion sneered in the Professor's direction. "You are way too late."

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

Pretty much at the same time:

"Here we are," Wolverine said as he stepped off of the X-Jet, and onto the dry soil of northern Alberta. The group of four had landed the jet right off a deserted rode. In the time they planned to be there, no one else should have driven past. But being what Logan called "paranoid", Storm feared that someone would still drive past, and made them land a little farther away from the rode, where the black metal of the X-Jet wouldn't reflect light from the headlights of a car.

On one side of the group, consisting of Wolverine, Storm, Shadowcat and Colossus, there was the rode. On two of the other sides was a forest, and right in front of them was the big cement warehouse. There was a huge red sign on the outside of the second story, and in faded white letters it read, "L.J. Furniture Company".

Wolverine sniffed the air and a growling noise, exactly like a wild animal's, was heard in his throat.

"Mystique," he grumbled gruffly. Wolverine's adamantium claws un-sheathed themselves from in between his knuckles.

While Wolverine turned his head to the tree nearest him, a line of blue swept past the group's vision and slammed right into Wolverine's head, nearly knocking him to the ground. He didn't fall, however, and was able to swipe at the figure with his claws.

This person was good, though. She dodged his claws and landed another kick to his head, sending him sprawling backwards and into a tree.

Wolverine stood ready, his claws out in front of him, positioned for another attack.

And it came.

The blue figure came down at him from a tree and hit him from behind, sending him falling off his feet and onto the yellow grass of the prairie.

Wolverine stumbled up, but the blue person was gone.

"We know you're here," he growled loudly. Up in a tree right in front of his, the blue lady rolled her eyes. "Yes, I know that, you idiot. Where are my children?"

"Um, what?" Shadowcat asked.

"Rogue and Kurt," the blue woman said. "Didn't you bring them with you?"

"Uh, no," Shadowcat replied, looking up to the spot where she heard the voice.

The blue woman sighed very loudly. "That idiot said you'd bring them with you! That's the only reason why I helped him!"

"What are you talking about?" Wolverine shouted. "What do you want to do to Stripes?" Instead of answering, there was a swoop in the trees, and the blue lady swung from the branch where she had been standing on to another, and repeated the process.

Wolverine growled again and took off after her, Shadowcat, Storm and Colossus following closely behind him.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

Inside the cold, damp room, everything had been silent for a few seconds. The only thing that could be heard was the sound of breathing. Everyone was on edge. Everyone was just waiting for somebody else to say something.

The cocoa skinned girl in the Juggernauts's hands cracked one of her chocolate brown eyes open. She almost gasped at what she saw, but stayed quiet. She was in in a cold cement room, somewhere where she had never been before. The girl felt a little comforted by the sight of her three friends, and the Professor. But of course, just a little bit, as they were being held captive, and the Professor was tied to a chair that was on it's side against a wall. She cast a gaze upward to the person holding her, who unluckily saw that her eyes were open.

"This one's awake," the big man said, moving the arm with the girl on it as an indication.

The blonde man turned toward them and looked the girl straight in the eye.

"Oh, hello, and who are you?"

The girl looked to the Professor, who was straining to look at her from the corner of his eyes, for some kind of sign as to what she should do.

In the girl's head, she heard, Magma, tell them.

"Magma," she said simply, hoping that they would not ask her her real name.

"Oh, so, Magma, where do you come from?" the blonde man asked.

"The Mansion," Amara spat at him without realizing it.

But that blonde, Legion, had some un-sane calmness about him. "Ah, I see. My father is teaching you how to use your powers, I presume?"

When Magma didn't answer, Legion thrust his left arm toward her, and she flew to the opposite the Professor.

Magma landed against the wall with a cracking noise, and she gasped when she felt pain in her stomach. She began breathing heavily, trying to sooth the pain a little bit. Her face was now pale and she felt nauseous. She felt a piercing sensation in her upper stomach, and feared that that could have only meant one thing.

The Juggernaut barely seemed to register what had happened and picked up another one of the girls, the one with the short red pigtails.

"Who is this, father?" Legion asked, starting to walk over to his dad again.

Wolfsbane, the Professor answered simply in his mind.

"You don't want her hurt too, do you?" Legion asked.

The Professor looked him over, but said nothing. In his eyes Legion could tell what he would say if he would have said anything.

"Now---"

But the blonde man was cut off by somebody slamming the door to the dark room open so hard that the wall where the door landed on cracked at the edges of the door. White light streamed into the nearly black room, the door's length across, and hit Legion right on. Standing in the doorway was a blue woman with reddish-orange hair that went down to her shoulders. Her eyes were cold and heartless, and she was gritting her teeth so hard that a vein on her head was popped out.

"You said that they would come," she said murderously to Legion, staring him straight in the eye.

"They didn't?" He asked, seeming pretty calm about the ordeal.

"No, they didn't!" The blue woman shouted and began stalking toward Legion. Pyro tried to stop her, but the blue woman knocked him down with one blow to the face, resulting in blood starting to stream from his nose.

"You said they'd come. I helped you get him." She pointed a finger at the Professor. "I did what you asked of me, and I didn't get what I wanted."

The Jaggurnaut watched. The Professor watched. Magma watched. Mirage couldn't stand it anymore and her eyes snapped open. Jubilee and Rahne were still unconscious.

The blue woman walked furiously up to Legion, and he just stared at her while she did it. He smiled coldly.

"You really think you can defeat me?" He asked.

But while he was gloating her on, the blue woman saw her opportunity, and she swiped her right leg under his.

Legion's legs came out from under him and he crumpled to the ground. While Legion was in confusion, the blue lady saw another opportunity, and hit the top of his head hard with her right fist. Then, she grabbed his shoulders and threw him into the nearest wall.

A gruff looking man appeared in the doorway just as Legion was thrown into the wall. It wasn't long before the man spotted what he was looking for.

"Shadowcat, get Mirage. Piotr, get Magma. Storm, help the Professor. I'll handle Rahne and Jubilee."

"But Logan---" Shadowcat started.

Logan, however, was already running off toward his target.

Storm followed close behind and went over to the Professor. Piotr immediately went in too, followed by Kitty, who still seemed a little un-easy by the idea.

Meanwhile, the blue lady went over to Legion and whispered in his ear, "Idiot. Next time know who you're messing with." She grabbed his head and thrust it into the wall. Legion went limp and the blue lady let him fall to the floor.

The lady backed away toward the wall and looked around the room. Wolverine was trying to fight off the Juggernaut, who was easily entertained by Wolverine trying to slash him with his claws. Storm was helping the Professor out of the chair. Kitty was leading Mirage to the door. Piotr had Amara gently in his arms, and was looking at Wolverine, knowing he was too busy fighting the Juggernaut to get Jubilee, so he did the honor himself.

The blue lady waited for a moment. She waited for Shadowcat to move away from the door, and then she would run out. Not that she didn't like a good fight with the X-Men, but this wasn't her fight anymore.

It wasn't someone else's either.

"_Sheila_," a heavily accented Australian voice said from beside her.

The blue lady looked to her right, and found that about five feet away from her stood a man of about twenty. He had bright orange hair, and he had what looked like a gas tank strapped to his back.

"What do you want?" The blue woman asked.

"You have a group called the Brotherhood, right?"

The woman thought about this for a minute. She hadn't been back there in a long time. It wouldn't hurt to go back, train those kids better. Because they pretty much sucked at fighting and lost every battle to the X-Men that they had ever had. And they would allow her back. Willingly or not.

"Yeah, I suppose so," the blue lady said. "Why?"

"How would you like another member to the group? I could help you train those kids a great deal." The orange-haired man said all of this matter-of-factly, like he already had a position on the blue lady's team.

The blue lady actually liked the idea. She would at least have someone on the team who knew how to fight.

"Follow me," she said to him, then turned around and bolted for the now empty doorway.

The Aussie smiled and ran after her.

Wolverine was busy trying to hurt the Juggernaut with his claws.

Kitty and Colossus were standing next to the Professor and Storm, with Jubilee, Amara and Mirage next to them.

"He's not going to be able to do anything," Kitty whispered as she watched Wolverine defend himself against the Juggernaut.

"Kitty, you can help Wolverine," the Professor said to her. "Colossus too. I want you to. . ."

A minute later, Kitty and Piotr were running toward Wolverine and the Juggernaut. The latter two were too busy with each other to notice the metal man and the valley girl running toward them. Of course, Colossus and Shadowcat took this to their advantage.

Kitty phased through the ground. She sank into the ground until her head was gone, then floated under the ground, right under Wolverine's and the Juggernaut's feet.

Colossus continued to run toward the two men, and right as Shadowcat phased up through the ground and into the Juggernaut's body, the Russian grabbed Wolverine held him back from taking a slash at the Juggernaut again. Wolverine kept thrashing out his claws, but to no avail.

"What are you doing?" He shouted at Piotr, looking up at him. Piotr just regarded him with a simple look.

Meanwhile Kitty had phased through the Juggernaut's body, right through to his head, and grabbed one of the locks on his helmet, un-locking it.

The Juggernaut threw Rahne out of his arms and tried to grab Kitty, but of course, his arms went right through her as she un-locked the other two locks on his head.

Kitty finally pulled the helmet off and threw it to the ground, then dove back into the ground, coming back up next to Piotr.

The Juggernaut tried to lunge after her and Piotr and Wolverine, but was stopped in the process by the Professor. In his head.

A few seconds later, he dropped to the ground with a huge thud, unconscious.

Everything was silent for a few minutes, the only sound was the breathing, light or heavy, coming from the people in the room.

Then, someone's voice broke through the silence, "What do we do with them?"

It was Storm, asking anybody in the room that would answer.

Luckily, the Professor had one.

"Legion is in a coma. The Juggernaut will be unconscious for a few days." The Professor stated, a little touch of sadness to his voice when he mentioned Legion. "Send them to Moira MacTaggart. She'll know how to deal with them."

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

A man in his twenties was looking over some plans. The man was dressed like he belonged in the seventies, which he sort of did. He loved to build electronic things. And that's what this was. A machine, designed to change people's ages. If it worked, he figured that it might help some people's causes a lot. Spying wasn't always that answer to everything, but it was sometimes a good answer. Scouting was even better. And besides, this invention was just pure brilliant. It could turn people ten years old again, so they could go back and be a kid for one day. It could turn the oldest man into the youngest boy. But he would only use it when need be, and only let people use it when need be.

"Almost done," the man muttered to himself, attaching a few more wires onto the large silver machine. "Nearly there."

**Sorry, I didn't edit this chapter that much. ****L That will not happen very much.**

**Since all of the past chapters have been more serious, the next few are going to be humorous. In the next chapter, I introduce you to: X-Babies! What happens when some of the X-Men are turned into little kids? Find out in the next installment of X-Men: Evolution: Season Five! Plus, the Professor takes Jean and Scott to enroll them in college, but some humans just aren't willing to let them in very easily.**

**By the way, have any of you ever watched X-Men: Evolution, and an idea for an episode popped into your head? Well, if this has happened to you, please share it with me! I might just use it if I can think of a way to fit it in, which will probably happen. I mean, there'll probably be ten to fifteen "episodes", so some fill in ones that might not go with the "big plot" might work.**


	7. XBabies, Part One, Intro

**I just want to say sorry to everyone that enjoys this story that it's taking SO LONG for the next section to be up. I am currently working on a project for school, in which I have to write a story. It's taking up a lot of my free time. I decided to post this chapter, just to let everyone know that I'm still here and I'm still going to be working on this story! I'm going to try and have the this section done by next month at sometime, and then, it's summer, so I should be publishing a new section once, or hopefully twice, a month!**

**Chapter Seven: X-Babies, Part One, Intro**

_A man of around twenty-seven smiled at his handy work. He arched his back into a straight position and wiped a little bit of warm sweat off of his forehead. His smile became broader as he got a look of his invention. It was simply amazing. It would work, too. He knew it. He had that special tingling feeling inside of his gut. Plus, he had been working on this project for nearly a month. It had to work. He'd put all of his time, and a lot of his money, into it._

_The man reached across the table that the machine was sitting on. There were many tools and papers jumbled on the desk, and any normal person would never have been able to find anything on it. Of course, this man wasn't normal. He was pretty much a genius. Messy, but a genius. He knew where the tool he was looking for was immediately. He picked it up a non-electrical screw driver, that had an end of black plastic._

_Making sure that all of the screws were tight, he threw the screw driver back on the table. It landed with a loud __clank!__, as the man was too excited to be careful. Unfortunately, in his neglect, the screw driver landed on a hammer, which flew off to the left, right toward the machine._

_Meanwhile, the man was turned around, making sure that all of the adjustments to first try his machine was ready to go on his computer. He was only going to use the machine a little, maybe only using it so he could see a substantial difference in himself, because he feared what might happen if he turned himself way younger. That would not be good._

_The hammer landed on the machine within only a few seconds. It flipped over when the screw driver had hit it, getting only a little ways off of the table before colliding with the silver machine._

_A__ beep, beep, beep __noise came from the machine, and a few red lights started to blink on and off._

_The man turned around, still giddy and smiling with joy, but his smile faded quickly when he saw what the machine was doing._

_He started to run over it, but there was a flash of white light around the machine, that encased everything in the room, obviously including the man. _

_After a few seconds the light died down. But the man was no longer there. Or, well, he was no longer __grown__, anyway. Where he had just been standing a moment before the light flashes, sat a baby. A cute little thing, with chubby arms and legs, and long black hair, the same style and shape as the man's that it had replaced. It looked around the room, curiosity in it's eyes. The babe took everything in for a moment. None of it made sense to him, but of course, he was a baby. Not much made sense to him, except for what he wanted. He had a certain desire for food. Specifically something mushy or some liquid like milk._

_The baby started crying, probably because he realized he wasn't going to get it, but another possibility was that he was alone. Nobody else was there. He had the feeling that someone should be. How else was he supposed to get food? Or do anything really? Adults normally made everything better. There was something not right._

_But there was also something a little bit still adult-conscious about this babe. He knew that he needed help, in some small, stowed away corner of his mind. He wasn't aware of it, of course, being only an infant, but he knew that he needed help. _

_Even if his baby mind only thought it was for food, the adult part that was still there was pleading to be turned back._


	8. XBabies, Part Two

**Chapter Eight: X-Babies, Part Two**

The sky was cloudless above Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. The sun was large, and hung low in the sky, casting a brilliant pink light over the campus. The morning was cool.

Professor Xavier, Jean Grey, Scott Summers, and Ororo Munroe, however, didn't care, or didn't really need to. They normally woke up before anyone else, even the other two teachers. And today was an important day for Jean and Scott, and even for mutant kind it's self. Or so they hoped it would be.

"Remember to check on Forge's new invention today," Jean reminded Ororo, otherwise known as the mutant Storm.

"Oh yes, of course," Storm replied. "I am quite interested in it, actually. He didn't tell us what it was, but that it was going to be a marvel beyond belief."

"He's acting as though he created some kind of time machine," Scott said. Oh, he would probably never realize the pure irony of those words.

"I think he could do that if he really wanted to," Jean said with a smile, remembering some of the crazy inventions that Forge had whipped up.

"Anyway, you must be going," Ororo told them, putting her hands on Scott and Jean's back and started leading them down the stairs leading up to the mansion and to the black car.

The reached it, and Jean and Scott started chatting about the day's coming event. They didn't really know what it had in store for them, but they were interested none the less.

Ororo helped Professor Xavier climb into the car, and asked him quietly, "Charles, are you sure you are going to be okay?"

The Professor looked at her with a kind smile. "Of course, Ororo."

Everyone knew about what had happened on Saturday. News and gossip traveled extremely fast around the mansion. Legion, the Professor's son had come back, kidnapped the Professor, along with Rahne, Jubilee, Amara and Danielle. Not many people knew his true intentions, except that he wanted some kind of revenge on his father.

Storm nodded and took a few steps back, letting the Professor shut the door. She waved as the car as it took off down the road, and in return got a small wave from Jean, until the car was out of sight. Strom sighed and walked back into the mansion, unaware of the day's coming events.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

"Forge vants us to check out his new machine?" A blue mutant asked as six figures walked down the metal hallway. Their shoes echoed on the equally metal floor, and one could hear the clothes on their bodies move it was so quiet.

"Yup," a short, hairy man said in his gruff voice.

"It should be. . .interesting!" A petite girl with brown hair piped up, trying to convince the others and herself that going over to Forge's was going to be a good time.

"It should be," a cocoa skinned female said.

These six people, were, of course, the X-Men. Mutants. Superheroes. Fighters for the good and against the evil. The people who had defeated Apocalypse. They were hated by the world around them, and yet protected it, and weren't afraid to do so. Much. Some of them were still on the edge about it. Not so much the older X-Men, the ones walking down the hall, but the group of six kids now called the "New X-Men", formerly named the "New Mutants", which now consisted of six other mutant kids.

The X-Men entered the jet hanger and instinctively walked one way. To their right, to the X-Jet. They stopped and waited, and soon, the jet's door came down and they started to walk up the black metal ramp.

"Who did you leave in charge?" The blue mutant asked.

"Bobby," the short man with the gruff voice replied as he entered the jet and went straight for the front of it, where the controls with their multicolored buttons and lights were held.

"And. . .why exactly ahre we taking the jet?" A girl with auburn hair that had white bangs asked.

"Because, Rogue, we just installed some new technology on it, and we want to make sure that it works before we fly too far with it," the hairy man replied. He sat down in the pilot's seat, and started switching on controls and buttons.

Rogue shrugged and plopped down in one of the seats in the back of the jet, of which there were many. The jet had always been made to fly a lot of people.

The X-Men consisted of the following: Wolverine, the short hairy man. Storm, the pretty African queen, also known as Ororo Munroe. Rogue, goth and depressed teenage girl. The blue one, Kurt Wagner, also to be known as Nightcrawler. Petite Shadowcat, given name Katherine Pryde, with the nickname of Kitty. Beast, real name, Henry McCoy. There were three others. The leader of the teenagers, Scott Summers, whose mutant name was Cyclops. The seemingly perfect and beautiful Jean Grey. And, of course, the one who started it all, Charles Francis Xavier, Professor X. These three were off somewhere else, already a good hour and a half away from the Mansion, heading to New York State University to see about getting mutants enrolled into college.

Wolverine put his hands on the wheel while Storm took a seat in the assistant pilot seat.

"Everybody ready?" Wolverine called back to the X-Men in the back of the jet.

There were muffled replies of "yeses" and "yeahs", so Wolverine pressed one final button, and the X-Jet started to roll along the ground. The Jet started to pick up more speed as it went, the various objects and structures in the hanger passing by within seconds. When the X-Jet was nearly at the end of the tunnel, an exit opened up, splitting the metal wall in half. The jet flew out of the opening, and through the spray of a waterfall that shielded the entrance to the hanger from unwanted seeing eyes.

The jet's wheels sunk into the bottom of the jet as it flew out of the opening, then it gained altitude and speed. The nearby trees flew by rapidly.

When the jet landed, it landed on the roof of a one-story concrete building. The building was in a smaller town just to the north of Bayville, the X-Men's home base town. Forge, the magnificent mutant inventor who had been trapped in a land of his own imagination for thirty years, lived there. Alone, in that concrete building. Some of the other people in the town didn't even acknowledge that he lived there, and just went on with their day to day routines.

Wolverine pushed a button and the jet's engines stopped humming. The lights were all still on, and he pushed another button, a red one, and the door to the jet opened. All of the occupants of the jet stood up and headed out the doors.

Once they were all out, the short, hairy man known as Wolverine took something out of his pocket.

Rogue looked at it and rolled her eyes. "A control. Now there's a controller to the jet. Are you serious?"

"Yep," Wolverine said as he click a button on the small controller that did a few things to the jet from the outside. The jet made a beep noise, like that of a car when it locks, and Wolverine slid the small control back into his pocket.

"Let's go," Wolverine said in a gruff voice and started walking across the roof, to a small trapdoor that led into the building.

The blue mutant, Nightcrawler, didn't feel like climbing down the ladder, so he just teleported inside the building, into Forge's lab, where the man would most likely be.

Inside the lab was a mess. A mess too great to be the mess of any _normal _person. Forge was just too brilliant of an inventor to worry about cleaning up after himself. There were papers and old, useless machines, or the start of machines, scattered every which way. There were four tables placed randomly in the room, and on most of them, there was no table showing anywhere.

Nightcrawler looked around the room, to see if he could find Forge. But Forge was nowhere in sight. Nightcrawler even checked under the tables and behind big machines to try and find him. He quickly teleported to and from a few different rooms in the place, but no Forge.

Then, the blue fuzzy "elf" heard a strange noise coming from the lab. His ears perked up for a moment, and he heard it again. . .a very faint cry, something like that of a baby. A baby? Why would there be a baby in Forge's place? But as Nightcrawler headed slowly toward the lab, it became more definite. A baby was crying.

Tilting his head to one side, Nightcrawler teleported back into the lab and looked around. The crying was louder in the lab, the source definitely coming from there. Nightcrawler wanted to hope that it was just one of Forge's wacky machines, but, as he headed over to one side of the room, that instantly faded.

What he saw sitting on the ground made him want to laugh and scream at the same time: a baby. But not just any baby. This baby wore seventies style clothes, and it's hair that was long for a baby's. His skin was a tan color, and his dark eyes shown with intelligence way beyond an infant's.

Nightcrawler being Nightcrawler, he laughed. And for one reason only: this baby, he knew, was Forge. Forge had been talking about what his new invention could do for a long time. And a lot of Forge's inventions backfired.

The baby looked up at Nightcrawler curiously, and reached out a chubby arm, grasping the air in front of him. This only made Nightcrawler laugh harder, until he was practically rolling on the floor. The Forge baby started crying again.

On the other side of the room, Wolverine walked in, followed by Kitty, Storm and Rogue.

"Whatcha laughin' about, Elf?" Wolverine asked.

Meanwhile, the Forge baby picked up a picked up a book awkwardly and threw it at Nightcrawler. The book barely missed the blue mutant's head, but it hitting his head probably would have been better than what happened next. . .

Nightcrawler looked up and was about to answer Wolverine's question, but a white light that covered the entire room made him fail to do so.

When the illuminating light was gone, there was no more of Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Rogue or Shadowcat. Instead, in their places, sat five tiny figures. Infants.

One was a wide baby, very pudgy, but with what looked like muscles. That would have, of course, been very, very awkward to any person. If there were any older people in the room. All of the people in the room were about the same age: babies.

Another one of the babies was African, with strange, long white hair, and sparkling blue eyes. There was a slightly chubby, but still leaner than all of the other infants, blue baby replacing Nightcrawler, with exactly the same features, just much younger. Short blue fur, yellow eyes, a demonic tail, pointed ears. One of the other girl babies had short auburn hair with white hair on the frame of her face, and the other had her brown hair pulled up in a pigtail.

The blue baby started to pick up the Forge baby's cries, and soon, all of the other infants followed.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

"Hey, weren't they supposed to be back by like, now?" A Chinese girl asked from her place on the brown couch. She was holding a remote control lazily in her hand and had a bored expression on her face. There was absolutely _nothing _on the T.V. that was to her interest, just a bunch of random little kid cartoons-_really _little kid cartoons-and horrible Disney channel shows.

A boy with curly hair looked up from the pool table. "Maybe they'll come in a few minutes."

The Chinese girl, known to everyone as Jubilee, rolled her eyes. "Oh please, Sunny. You said that five minutes ago, and then five minutes before that."

"Then why did you ask?" The boy inquired, irritated.

"Because maybe I had nothing better to do," Jubilee said, pressing a button on the remote that turned off the T.V. She stood up from the couch and made her way over to them, stopping right at the pool table. "Mind if I join?"

"We were actually just going to get lunch," the boy with the curly hair, named Roberto, told her.

Jubilee sighed and looked at the other two boys around the table. "Can't we play one more game, fellas?"

One with long blonde hair shrugged. "Ah dunno, Jubes. . .Ah'm kinda hungry mahself. Mahybe latah?"

Jubilee sighed heavily. "Fine, later. Then can I come to lunch with ya?"

The other boy, one with light brown hair, simply shrugged. "Sure. We're just going to have sandwiches."

"Which is my kind of lunch," Jubilee replied with a grin, and headed for the door.

The four boys, Roberto, the boy with the blonde hair Sam, and the boy with the brown hair, Bobby, followed her. They walked out of the room and down the hallway, talking about new T.V. stations that they had to get put on their T.V., because in all of their opinions, most of the ones that the Mansion had sucked.

The four mutants walked into the kitchen to be greeted by five of their other teammates. Ray Crisp, also known as Berserker, Danielle Moonstar, also known as Mirage, Kevin Ford, also known as Wither, Shan Coy Manh, also known as Karma, and Jamie Madrox, also known as Multiple. Ray and Jamie were sitting and talking to Danielle, while Karma sat and listened in an interested fashion to the conversation. Kevin sat by himself at the other end of the table, quietly eating a microwave meal that he had prepared for himself.

"Hey everyone!" Jubilee said as she walked over to the refrigerator. "How are we all doing?"

Ray looked up. "Good, Jubes!"

Jubilee opened the fridge and rummaged around it for a minute, before finally pulling grape jelly and peanut butter out of it. She reached across the counter while closing the door with her foot and grabbed a package of white bread. Then, the Chinese girl started to make herself a sandwich.

"Anyone else want PBJ?" Jubilee asked.

Jamie and Sam replied with a "me!", and Bobby started making himself a turkey sandwich.

When Jubilee was finished, she brought the sandwiches over to the kitchen table and sat down, handing one to Jamie and the other to Sam.

"So. . .aren't the X-Men supposed to come back anytime soon?" She asked, taking a bite out of her PB&J.

"I thought they were supposed to be calling at noon," Berserker replied. "It's now 1:30. Weird."

"But so are the X-Men," Jubilee added with a grin.

"But they normally keep to their promises," Berserker said, but he grinned as well.

"Yeah. . ." Jubilee said. "Too bad. I'm sure they're fine. I mean, they are the X-Men."

Sam looked uneasy. "Yeah, but. . .should we call them? Just to make sure?"

"All they did was go to Forge's," Jubilee said. "I'm sure they're fine."

"Still, like you said, they're the X-Men. . ." Sam said.

Jubilee rolled her eyes and stood up from the table, popping the last bit of sandwich into her mouth. She walked over to a phone that was hanging on the wall a few feet away from the table, and picked it up. Jubilee began punching a few numbers into the phone, before finally putting it to her ear.

"I'll call them now, since you're so worried," she said, listening to the ringing on the phone, indicating waiting for someone to pick it up. At five times, she tapped her foot impatiently. Finally, a voicemail came on with Forge's voice, saying to leave a message.

Jubilee groaned and hung the phone back up, then dialed again. When they didn't work, she dialed a third time. When Forge's voicemail yet again came on, saying that he "wasn't there at the moment", Jubilee hung the phone back on the wall.

"Well, that's nice, they're so busy they're not answering," she said as she walked over to the fridge and opened it, in less than twenty seconds producing a red Gatorade. She opened the top and began to drink it.

Sam sighed. "That's not a good sign."

"Hey, maybe they had to go off and save the world somewhere," Ray said with a smile, trying to lighten the mood. "Don't worry. The _X-Men _will be fine."

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

Meanwhile, farther north in the state of New York, Professor Xavier, Jean Grey and Scott Summers were sitting at a table in a large university. Jean and Scott were waiting anxiously for the meeting to begin, while the Professor sat there, looking as patient as ever. His arms were rest on the table, upright, and his head was resting on his hands, one of the many things he did when he was in deep thought.

Suddenly, a speaker crackled to life, and a loud, broad voice spoke over it.

"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen," the man spoke through the microphone. His hands were gripping the sides of the waxed wooden pedestal lightly. He looked out over the crowd and started to introduce various people: members of the university's school board, people that would be talking there that night, and other various "important" people. The Professor's name, Charles Francis Xavier, was called, but there were only a few scattered applause for him. Mostly, the replies to his name were boos, and things like, "go back home, Mutie!" But the Professor didn't mind. He simply nodded and waved his hand. Jean Grey's name was called as well, as one of the speakers. There was very little reaction to her name, but there were some boos and mean words as well.

Scott gripped the now empty plastic cup he held in his hand tightly. His lips tightened into a line, and if he could glare, he would have been giving a death glare to the whole room.

Jean looked over at him and rested a hand on his tense fist. "Scott, calm down. Anger is not going to help anything."

Scott slowly released his grip on the cup, which was now crumbled up so bad that there was no way that water would ever be poured into it again.

"Yeah, sorry," he said, his voice still tight, but he breathed in and tried to calm down for her sake.

Scott, Jean and the Professor sat in near silence for the next few hours, only exchanging a few words at some scattered points. Finally, two hours after the meeting began, another man, tall and lanky, stepped up to the pedestal. He addressed the issue that Jean, Scott and the Professor were there for.

"Now, we have to come and make a decision about mutants attending our university, or perhaps any other university across the state, and the nation," the man said in a voice just as loud as the other man's that had been up at the pedestal at the beginning of the meeting. "Now, Mr. Gregory Hansen will speak."

Another man came up to the stand and spoke about how mutants were dangerous to humanity, and that they shouldn't be let near the human students who had worked so hard to get where they were, at a place in the university.

Scott's hands turned into fists. _Mutants would have worked just as hard_, was his number one thought.

The Professor looked over at Scott, but didn't say anything. He picked up stray thoughts from other people as well, and most of them agreed with the man up at the dais. No mutants should go to the college, they don't deserve it, they should stay in the sewers with the others. The Professor simply ignored the thoughts, and listened to the man speaking, picking up some of what he said as defense for the mutant cause.

When the man stepped off of the pedestal and went back to his place, there was loud cheering. The Professor, meanwhile, wheeled himself up to the stand, and was brought a microphone so he could speak to the crowd. The people gathered went quiet, some glaring, some expressionless, and very few actually looking interested.

"My name is Professor Charles Xavier," the Professor began, getting a good look at the crowd, before moving on to continue.

"Yeah, we know who you are!" Someone in the back of the room shouted.

The Professor ignored it and went on. "A run an institute for mutant children. I train them to use their powers for good, though when _other _mutants might be learning to use them for bad. This is a fact that I cannot hide or deny, but I promise you, my students are nothing to be afraid of." He paused for a moment, then continued. "My students are feared and hated, just because of the abilities that they possess, not even by their own calling. Barely any mutant chose to be a mutant, but we are given our abilities anyway. We are human, just a little different. I want my students to have a bright future, the same chances as every other child that gets admitted into your university. We need not to be separated because of our differences, but we must work with each other to overcome them. Please, allow my students, and all other mutants, to have the same chances as any other children. Good day."

The Professor set the microphone down on the dais and wheeled himself back over to the table where Jean and Scott were sitting at. Jean smiled at him, but Scott was looking around at the crowd. Most of them didn't look like they mulled over the Professor's words at all. Some even looked like they were snickering. Scott frowned deeply.

_Please, Scott, calm down_, the Professor said in his mind. _It will be fine._

"No," Scott muttered, taking another look around the room. "It won't."

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

It was now six PM. And all of the New X-Men, Berserker, Sunspot, Magma, Multiple, Iceman and Cannonball were starting to get worried, along with the New Mutants, Jubilee, Wolfsbane, Mirage, Karma, and even Wither and M. All eleven of them sat in the rec. room, nervously watching the news, for they had nothing better to do. Colossus, another mutant, and a new recruit to the X-Men's side, sat in a far corner, with a drawing pad and a pencil, sketching something. It was his duty to watch all of the kids, since he was a young man in his very early twenties. He glanced over at them every so often, getting more worried every time. The X-Men were supposed to have been back at the Mansion by noon. He knew that they sometimes had emergency missions to go on, but none of them had ever lasted for six hours, especially without a phone call.

Piotr Rasputin glanced up one more time at the group of kids, and Jubilee caught his eye.

"Hey, Petey, should I try and call the X-Men again?" She asked him. Most of the other kids looked back at him as well. Jubilee had already called the X-Men numerous times, and at none of the times did they pick up.

Piotr, more commonly called by his English name Peter, considered this for a minute. They shouldn't try and call again . . .it wouldn't work. If it hadn't already, there was no way it would now.

"I think we should go look for them!" Bobby exclaimed, pressing the mute button the remote. "Start at Forge's place, and then work our way from there. It might be nothing, but still, six hours . . .doesn't seem like nothing to me."

Most of the other kids nodded their heads in agreement, and looked at Peter expectantly.

Piotr realized that it was his duty to tell these kids what to do, even though he didn't particularly want to. He was the oldest, and even though he had been evil not two months earlier, they looked up to him. He wasn't sure of he liked that or not yet.

Colossus thought about the ordeal for a minute. The X-Men had been gone for size hours. They had given no warning, they had not picked up the phone when Jubilee tried to call. Not even Forge had picked up the phone, which was a bad sign. X-Men missions had never lasted six hours before, except for _maybe _Apocalypse. Peter wondered what the Professor would do if he was there. . .no doubt go look for the missing members of their team.

"Okay, we vill go look for zem," Piotr decided, looking up at the kids. Bobby pumped his fist in the air, and Jubilee grinned. "But all of you cannot go."

Jubilee's smile faded and she slumped down into the couch. "Oh great. That means the New X-Men get to go, and us New Mutants have to stay behind. Brilliant."

Peter gave her a sad look. "Yes, zorry. But, if we do not come back or call in two hours, I vant the New Mutants to zuit up, and I vant you to come after us."

Jubilee looked up and beamed at him. "Sure thing, Captain!" "So. . .New X-Men, get into you uniforms," Peter told them, and soon, Bobby, Ray, Roberto, Jamie and Amara were rushing out of the room, to their rooms, where they kept their uniforms in one of their dresser drawers. Peter watched them go, then looked back at the New Mutants and nodded.

"Remember, two hours, no earlier, no later," he said. "Call Forge's first, and if we don't answer, drive over. Do. . .any of you know how to drive?"

Jubilee sighed and shook her head. "I've got a permit. . .but, of course, can't drive without an adult."

Rahne shook her head when Piotr's eyes landed on her, then when they moved over to Kevin, he shrugged and shook his head. Peter's eyes drifted over to the mutant girl known as M, who had a proud look on her face,

"I have a license," she said conceitedly. "I'll drive them."

Jubilee rolled her eyes, and muttered under her breath, "Of course you do, Princess."

Monet glared at her, but returned her gaze to Peter with the same arrogant, fake smile on her face.

Piotr nodded, sensing the tension between the two girls, but saying nothing. Instead, he left the room and walked down the hall to his room, to get into his uniform.

Ten minutes later, while the New Mutants continued to watch a boring program on T.V., Piotr and the New X-Men were down in the Mansion's garage, climbing into one of the bulky, black X-Vans. Piotr took a place at the drivers' seat, Bobby called shotgun, Roberto, Sam and Jamie squished together on the second set of seats back, and Magma and Ray sat on the seats in the third row back.

Colossus looked behind them in the rearview mirror. "All vready?"

"We are back here!" Ray called from the back, while all three boys in the second row of seats said "yeah", and Bobby said "totally!"

Peter shifted and then moved the car forward, heading to Brigton, where Forge's "home" was.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

The X-Van pulled up to Forge's "home" a half hour later. The town of Brigton seemed deserted, even though it was only six thirty at night. The small shops were closing down, and the street lights had turned on, mixing with the colors of the pink and orange sky with the setting sun.

Piotr stepped out of the car, the New X-Men following his lead. They all looked up at the old concrete building for a minute, before finally heading to the door.

When they got there, they just walked in, because what Forge called his "house" didn't have a doorbell. It had been an old warehouse, that had been abandoned long before. . .and now it served as Forge's home. There was still a small bell attached to the door, so anyone that was inside would know that they were coming in by the loud ringing.

The mutants started to look around for their friends, the X-Men, that were supposedly missing in action. Piotr started to check the front room, while the New X-Men headed to the different rooms in the abandoned warehouse.

Magma walked around aimlessly, deciding finally that she would head to the lab, since all of the others were already looking in the other rooms. She started to walk down the hallway, but stopped still when she saw what-who-was at the end of it. Magma's face grew a curious and confused expression on it, and then she started walking again.

Finally, she came up upon the person-the very _little _person. A baby. It was a girl baby, Magma realized, and . . .she was dressed in a mini X-Men outfit. Storm's outfit, only baby sized. And, Magma realized with a start, this baby _was _a mini Storm. A baby Storm. What the real Storm would have looked like twenty seven years before. Cocoa skin, with long, shiny white hair. Magma gawked for a minute, before finally bending down and looking at the baby. Startling blue eyes. Definitely Storm. But how was she this way? Suddenly, Magma remembered Forge's new invention. An aging machine, to turn you any age you wanted. Somehow, it must have backfired, which wasn't surprising, considering that it was made by Forge.

Magma then noted that they had no certain way of turning Storm back into an adult, unless they found Forge's machine, which might be hard in a lab like his. And if Storm was a baby . . . Magma's eyes widened and she picked up the Storm baby off of the ground.

The Storm baby looked her curiously in the eyes for a few moments, then broke out into a gleeful smile and a small, cute laugh. Magma couldn't help but smile, even if this was one of her instructors turned infant.

Magma glanced into Forge's lab, and stopped still. There were more babies in their. One, blue with a demon's tail, was crawling on the ground, chasing another baby with a high brunette ponytail. Right when Magma looked in the lab, the baby with the ponytail fell through the floor-literally-but came back up ten seconds later, melting through the floor and then through the table, before she looked down at the blue baby triumphantly. The blue baby seemed to have a frustrated look on his face, before he burst into blue smoke, and then materialized next to the girl baby in another cloud of smoke. The baby with the brown hair gasped and phased through the table again, and began crawling away quickly.

Magma's eyes widened and she stepped inside Forge's lab and looked around. Her eyes got bigger as she looked around. There was a baby dressed in seventies-like clothes sitting on one of the tables, looking dejected, and another male baby was tearing up a chair with tiny metal claws that extended out of his knuckles. Another female infant sat be herself, tearing pages out of a book about electronics. She seemed to glare at the blue infant chasing the pony tailed infant as they passed by.

"Oh. . .my," Magma whispered to herself, taking another look around the room. Her voice got a little louder. "Forge, what did you do?"

At the sound of the name "Forge", the baby in the mini seventies clothes turned to her and seemed to cock his head, as if he knew that was what everyone called him. Which, he probably did, even though he was now reduced to a toddler.

"Hey, you guys!" Magma called. "I found them!"

She heard footsteps coming down the hallway, marching from the other side of the building. Berserker arrived first, and when he spotted all of the babies, his expression turned to confusion. After a few seconds, he began to laugh. Soon, Iceman, Cannonball, Sunspot and Multiple joined in on the laughter. Colossus and Magma were the only ones that were not laughing.

Iceman spotted this, and spoke in between laughs: "Oh, come on, you have to admit this is funny! They were turned into babies. . .and that's why they didn't come back! No heroics or anything!"

"I do not vind it very amusing," Colossus said, but his mouth, as well as Magma's, was curled up a little bit at the ends. "Just go and try to vind the machine."

After a minute of more laughter, the four boys finally wandered off to find any machine that might reduce somebody's age, which, at first glance, could have been any of the machines in Forge's lab.

Multiple walked off to the left side of the lab, closest to the Forge baby, and began looking around. He came to the table that the Forge baby was sitting on, and began looking around the table. The Forge baby looked at him curiously as he went along, and gave a noise that sounded like a cross between a cry and a giddy laugh, which caused Multiple to look at him and grin, but he just moved on.

Soon, he came upon a machine at the middle of the table and began examining it. Silver, with an assortment of all different kinds of buttons and lights on it. Then, he noticed something that caught his eye. It looked like a combination lock, like one that you might see on a bike. He looked closer, and noticed that it had three of these little locks with numbers on them. Above them, they were labeled in very small handwriting: age. All of them. Multiple turned them all the way around until he got back to _one_, and then looked at the rest of the machine. Multiple noticed something that said "name" above it, but he didn't know what to do there, so he passed it on. This _had _to be the machine. Maybe, if he pressed a button . . .

Jamie looked around the machine again, and spotted a red button. Red was always good, right? Or was that blue? Or green? Oh well, he try anyway.

Colossus looked over at him and his eyes widened. "Vait! Jamie, no!"

But it was too late, Jamie had already pressed the button, and a white light coated the room.

**Dun, dun, dun! Just go to the next chapter to see what happens to our favorite X-Men!**


	9. XBabies, Part Three

**Chapter Nine: X-Babies, Part Three**

Jubilee watched the clock anxiously. One more minute. She watched as the clock ticked from the two to the four to the six. Half a minute more. Forty, fifty. The last ten seconds were the longest. Jubilee tapped her fingers on the counter and watched the clock tick the last ten seconds slowly. Very slowly.

Finally, the clock ticked eight. The minute hand moved a millimeter to the twelve.

"Yes," Jubilee said quietly as she stood up from the kitchen counter and made her way over to the phone.

Five rings, and no answer. That might not have been good news, but it was good news for Jubilee. She could prove herself now, to the X-Men, to show them that she was just as good as the New X-Men, despite her lack of training for the past few months. She had trained on her own. And she was better than the New Mutants. Rahne and her were both much better than the New Mutants, both of them had been training longer, it was unfair to make them train with the New Mutants, when they had already learned the stuff that M, Mirage, Karma and Wither were learning now.

Jubilee hung the phone back on the wall, and then went out into the hallway. She climbed the large marble stairs to the Mansion's second story, where all of the bedrooms were. She walked to the second hallway, then down that hallway to the third door on the right. Jubilee knocked, one, two, three times. She waited for half a minute, before finally, Shan answered.

"They didn't pick up?" She asked, sounding slightly worried.

Jubilee shook her head and bit her lip to keep from smiling. "Nope. Now it's our turn to go find them. Suit up. . .and, I hate to say it, but tell Monet too."

Shan nodded, a little uneasy, and closed the door, off to get on her New Mutants uniform, and to tell Monet.

Jubilee turned and walked a few feet to the door right across the hall and knocked on it. Mirage answered.

"Oh. . .hi," Danielle said. "Is it really our time?"

Jubilee nodded. "Yep. I tried to call and nobody answered." Danielle nodded. "Meet you in the garage in ten, then."

She closed the door, and Jubilee moved to a different hallway. The boys' hallway. There was only one New Mutant residing there now. She felt a little bad for him, being the only boy on the New Mutants team, and for the power he had. Kevin was his name, codenamed Wither appropriately. Kevin was like Rogue in many ways - his power wouldn't let him get close to any person, or anything else organic, for that matter. By his touch, anything organic would decompose. Anything. Even clothes. So the Professor and Beast had made special clothes for him, ones that wouldn't disintegrate every time he tried to put them on. They also gave him special gloves, made out of the same material as his clothes, so that if he accidentally touched someone or something, it would fall to pieces in his hand.

Jubilee knocked on the door that was first on the right. She waited, her arms folded over her chest. Finally, she heard rustling, and the clicking of the door, and Kevin answered. He didn't say anything, just looked at her for whatever she had to say.

"Um, get suited up, we go look for the X-Men," Jubilee said, feeling slightly awkward because of his silence. But it was normal. She'd only heard him talk a few times.

Kevin nodded and slowly closed the door.

Jubilee sighed and then went back into the other hallway, the hall were most of the girls' dorms were, and walked into her room without knocking, of course. Roommates never knocked. Rahne was sitting on her bed, reading a magazine and listening to a green iPod. She bopped her head a little with the music, but not as much as, say, Jubilee herself would have. Jubilee normally rocked out along with her iPod.

Jubilee walked over and stood beside Rahne's bed, then pulled out the earphones from her roommate's ears.

Rahne growled, much like a dog, and looked up at Jubilee. Her face softened a bit.

"What 'tis it, girl?" Rahne asked the Chinese girl in her strong Scottish accent.

"Get suited up, we're going to find the X-Men," Jubilee said, moving away from Rahne's bed and to the dresser. She opened up the bottom drawer and pulled out her uniform, then Rahne's uniform, which was slightly smaller. Jubilee tossed Rahne her uniform, and produced her own from the drawer.

Rahne caught her uniform expertly. "So they didnae call?"

Jubilee shook her head. "Nope. I think something's up."

"How do you know we'll do any better?" Rahne asked, turning her iPod up, and standing up from the bed.

"I don't," Jubilee replied. "Let's just hope that we will."

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

Forty minutes later, the second X-Van pulled up on the side of the road, in front of Forge's place. The first one was parked right in front of them, and it didn't look tampered in any way, except for previous beatings with mutant powers.

Monet stepped out of the car from the driver's seat, and Mirage, who had been sitting in the passenger's side seat, hopped out behind her. Jubilee, Wolfsbane, Wither and Karma got out after, from the two sets of backseats.

Jubilee looked up at the concrete building, getting a weird feeling. Did she hear … crying inside. Like, baby crying? Jubilee shook her head to get the weird thought out of her mind.

Rahne cocked her head, as she was hearing it too. And her ears rarely failed her. "Yeh 'ear that?"

Jubilee knit her eyebrows. "Yeah. . .that's strange. Let's go check inside."

They entered through the glass door, to the ringing of a shop bell. And the crying became more definite. Everyone heard it now. One, two, three babies crying.

Jubilee knit her eyebrows once more, Rahne cocked her head, and all the rest did something similar, looks of confusion on their faces.

Finally, Karma was the one to sneak forward. She went out into the hallway, the others following her lead. When she got in the hall, she started running, for she saw something startling at the end: a baby. A baby with light brown hair, and curious blue eyes . . .

As Karma got closer, the baby looked up and laughed gleefully, clapping it's tiny, chubby hands. Then, Karma felt her feet slip from underneath her, and she hit the ground hard. But the sliding didn't stop there. Karma slid the rest of the way down the hallway on her back. She was sliding on a cold, hard surface. Naturally, the other New Mutants went sliding as well. It was rather comical, six super powered teenagers in superhero uniforms sliding on the ground. One ice. That had just seemed to coat the floor.

The New Mutants crashed into the wall at the end of the hallway, each narrowly missing hitting the baby. They all groaned and sat up slowly, rubbing various parts on their bodies that now had bruises or just simply ached from the impact.

Karma sat up and looked over at the babe, then crawled carefully toward him. She grabbed him off of the ground and slid into a room, Forge's lab. Inside, she was met with chaos.

Someone tried to nail her in the head with a book. Papers that were supposed to be on tables were now strewn on the floor. A glass mug that used to hold coffee in it was now in pieces on the floor, the coffee drying on the ground. One particular invention was broken into a few different pieces on the ground. A very important invention . . .

Of course, the biggest worry was all of the babies in the room. A blue baby with elfish features and a demon's tail was hanging on a lamp on the ceiling, swinging back and forth. Two others were having a duel of fighting, chubby fists. A large, hairy baby was running the metal claws coming out of his hands along the ground. A baby dressed in seventies clothes that was sitting on one of the tables, crying, and two others, a baby with white hair and a baby with cocoa skin, had joined in.

"Guys, you might want to see this!" Karma called out to the rest of her teammates.

The New Mutants scrambled into the room, some falling onto the ground, but eventually making their way in.

"Whoa. . ." Jubilee muttered quietly, looking around at the scene. "This is . . . Wow."

Suddenly, a blue ball of fur appeared on her shoulder in a cloud of sulfur-like smoke. Jubilee gasped and grabbed the thing on her shoulder. She held it out in front of her and looked at it. It was a baby, the small blue baby that had been hanging from his tail on the light. She grinned a little bit, realizing _who _the baby was, but also finding him cute in a weird way.

The baby made a giggling noise and smiled, waving it's arms in the air. Jubilee grinned and brought it closer to her chest, looking down at it then up at the others.

"Okay, hopefully Kurt doesn't teleport out of my hands," she said with a grin. "We need to find the machine that did this to them. . .and fast. Can't have the X-Men stay babies for too long."

M looked doubtful. "We should call the Professor."

"No," Jubilee insisted. "He's busy. We can't both him with. . .this _little _thing. We can handle this on our own."

M crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine. Then we need to look for the machine to turn them back to normal." Jubilee hated to agree with her. " . . . Yeah, we do."

So they began looking, each of them going in a different direction. Jubilee searched near a table farthest from the door, the Nightcrawler baby still in her hands. He was being pretty quiet, only making giggling and spurting noises every so often.

As she was searching the table, she looked down at him once more. The blue babe stared at her with his curious yellow eyes. He smiled again and spurted a little spit, and even though some got on Jubilee, she had to smile. A baby just being a baby. He was so cute.

"You know, I could get used to having you like this all the time, Elf," she said to the baby with a grin.

He looked up at her with wide, a little bit confused eyes, as if he was surprised that she had just spoken. He cocked his head and leaned in closer to her chest, like a frightened baby would. Or just a baby that wanted attention.

"Awe, you guys, can we keep him like this?" Jubilee asked, turning around to the others. They were all sitting around something. Something metal. That was broken on the ground.

Jubilee walked over to them. "Hey, guys, what did you find?"

"I think this might be the machine," M said shortly as she began to examine one of the pieces. The metal was broken into three pieces, and there were even more colorful buttons and small parts scattered around the small area of the floor.

Jubilee bent down and picked up one of the pieces off of the ground with one hand, while the other still held the Nightcrawler baby, examining it.

"Don't pick it up!" M snapped, slapping it out of her hand. It clanked to the ground loudly. Some of the babies in the room looked over, and one began waddling it's way over to them. One of the babies that had been having a chubby fist duel with another. This baby had bright blonde hair, almost unreal, and a dyed streak of orange on the front of his hair. The other baby, a dark one with slightly matted curly hair, followed him over. The curly haired baby almost tackled the one with the dyed hair to the ground, but the lighter skinned one dodged it and laughed gleefully when the other baby hit the ground with a thud.

Mirage gasped, seeing the display, and walked over to the two babies. She picked up the curly haired one with her right arm, and the one with the flamboyant hair in her left.

Mirage looked between the two. "Ray and Roberto?"

Jubilee looked up. "Oh, wow." She laughed. "I know they're all babies, but it's even better when you say it."

The Nightcrawler baby hit her chest with his tubby fist, like he knew what she was saying and was offended by it.

Jubilee looked down at the babe in her arms. "Hey now, that's not nice." She grabbed his fist, as it was about to hit her again. "No, babe, sorry."

"You guys, 'tis gonnae take a while t' fix," Wolfsbane clarified. She had gone against M's wishes, and had started to pick up and examine all of the pieces, little and big. "Meh mu'ter is a scientist, but she knows a little 'bout machinery. Taught me some…and I can tell that we might be in trouble with this one."

"It can't be that hard to fix," M interrupted, taking the piece of metal that Wolfsbane had in her hand out of it.

"It 'tis," Wolfsbane growled, and snatched the piece out of M's hand. "Now, if yeh want to help meh, yer more than welcome. We need to gather this all up, take it back to the Mansion. There must be some stuff there we can use to put it back together. . ."

She looked around the room. Wolfsbane's eyes drifted from the Nightcrawler baby, to the mini-sized Ray and Roberto, then to all of the rest of the babies; the infant dressed in the seventies clothes, Forge. The two babies with the cocoa skin, no longer crying, but sniffling, Storm and Magma. The large, hairy baby with the metal claws, Wolverine. A lone baby sitting in the corner, seeming to glare at everything, Rogue. The baby with the ponytail, Shadowcat. The ice baby, Iceman. The smart looking blue and hairy baby sitting on a table, examining test tubes. The large baby that was now turned into metal, Colossus. And the other two New Mutants that were reduced to babies, Multiple and Cannonball, who were displaying their powers, which they all still had, in one of the far corners of the room.

Wolfsbane sighed. "And yeah, we have to bring the babies home."

"And get some diapers," Jubilee said, looking down with a disdainful expression to the baby Nightcrawler. He cocked his head at her.

Wolfsbane smirked. "Aye, that too."

"Oh wow, then we should get started now," Mirage said, with a little groan. Get them all into the van."

"Some of us should go to the store, and a couple go back to the Mansion," Jubilee suggested. "Each taking half of the babies."

Mirage sighed. "Okay. . .umm. . .take ones that shouldn't cause _too _much trouble. Umm. . .Rogue, Storm, Kitty. . .split up these two." She moved her arms up and down to indicate the babies Roberto and Ray, who were trying to reach across her chest to hit each other. "Take Roberto to the store. Bobby. . .and Hank."

"And the rest to the Mansion," Jubilee finished. "Okay. Umm. . .I guess I'll head to the store. Umm. . .I know how to drive. Just hope that they don't ask for a license. All I have is a permit. Who wants to come with me?"

"I guess I will," Mirage offered.

"Okay, and. . .?"

"Me, I guess," Karma said, standing up and still holding the baby known as Bobby in her hands.

"Good, so M, Wolfsbane and Wither will head back to the Mansion and start working on the machine," Jubilee said, feeling great for taking control of the situation.

The others agreed, and soon, six New Mutants took turns going into the bathroom and changing into their everyday street clothes, Jubilee with her yellow coat and Mirage with her checkered button up top and jeans.

They then rounded up all of the babies. Jubilee handed off little Nightcrawler to Wolfsbane, and the little blue baby didn't look too happy about being taken away from his new friend. Mirage gave Monet Ray, but Karma kept Bobby in her hands, and picked up the baby known as Rogue. Jubilee picked up the heavy Hank baby, and the light Kitty baby. Mirage picked up Storm, as well as still holding Roberto. Monet now carried Ray, Peter and Amara. Wolfsbane had the babies Wolverine, Forge and Nightcrawler. And last but not least, Wither had taken up Jamie and Sam. He looked uncomfortable about touching them, but once he picked up the first one without doing anything to it, he picked up the second one with a little more ease.

Finally, the New Mutants left Forge's lab, closing the door behind them.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

It was nine PM. The last few hours had been ones of restlessness. There had been much arguing and shouting. It had only just started to calm down. Finally, there were only two more speakers to the mutant cause to the university, the first one remaining a mystery to most.

The man with the loud voice that had introduced every speaker came up to the microphone and began introducing the next speaker. He described the man as an "influential voice among his side in the mutant problem, said to be magnificent in his ways by his co-workers". Finally, when the man's name was said, Jean and Scott's hearts stopped. They froze, and their eyes drifted slowly to the stage. The Professor, even being a telepath, was slightly stunned, but didn't seem to show it.

Jean gasped and looked sideways at Scott as Roberto Kelly walked onto the stage, shaking hands with the broad man and taking his place behind the pedestal.

Scott's mouth formed into a tight line at the sight of their old principle, and his hands clutched the side of the table. He looked so angry, that at that moment, the mutant with the laser beams in his eyes looked just about ready to take off his glasses and shoot Roberto Kelly right off the stage and into the ceiling.

Roberto Kelly began to speak. "I know that I'm new around politics, but I feel that I have something to offer." He took a long, meaningful look around the room. "Something about the mutant problem. I was the principle at Bayville High School, where the first mutants were discovered." Maybe subconsciously, or not, he looked over at Jean, Scott and Professor X. "Soon, I quit my teaching position. Bayville and it's high school let these _monsters _coexist with our environment, with our children. They put their own children in danger with the risk of letting mutants attend public school. But I say, we should not put our deserving human university students in jeopardy because of a few dangerous mutants that think they can come in here with the humans!"

There were some shouts of approval for the first part of Roberto Kelly's speech. This only made Scott grip the table harder. Jean glanced over at him and put a calming hand on his shoulder. She was glad that Scott didn't have the power of super strength, because if he did, the table would have broken in half a long time ago, like a toothpick. Scott looked over at her, and his shoulder's relaxed at the sight of her, the touch of her gentle hand on his shoulder. He un-gripped the table and sat back, listening, but not wanting to listen, to the rest of the ex-principle Kelly's speech.

"I say that we should not let mutants corrupt our universities!" He shouted. "They've already done enough damage to our nation - and the world!" Behind him, a screen with a projector facing it showed images of mutants. The X-Men fighting of the Sentinels, fuzzy pictures of the X-Men fighting the Acolytes, a few from the Apocalypse incident. There were a few more, but surprisingly, not of the X-Men. Of other mutants. There was one of a girl, around fourteen years of age, with tanned skin, and two claws coming out of each of her hands. X-23. The X-Men knew her well. She had defeated all of them, except for Wolverine, in one night. The picture was obviously taken from a security camera, of her fighting some kind of machine. Another picture showed an Asian looking girl with purple hair, with a purple glowing kantana in her hand. There were a few more pictures of the Brotherhood, and then another mutant they didn't know. A man, aged in his early twenties. Knives of orange energy seemed to be flying at the screen from somewhere on his body.

The slideshow ended, and Kelly began to speak his final lines. "No mutants in our universities! They are dangerous to us all, and they have plagued our world enough! Not hear, not now!"

There was a loud applause and even a small standing ovation, before Kelly finally stepped off of the pedestal. He seemed to give Scott, Jean and the Professor a snide look before he went and took a seat in a chair far off to the right of the stage.

The broad man walked up to the microphone again. "Finally, we come to our last speech of the night, from Ms. Jean Grey."

Jean sighed deeply and stood up. Her boyfriend, Scott, squeezed her hand one last time and then let go, giving her an encouraging nod and smile.

Jean nodded back, then walked up, a little stiff. This was the most nervous that she had ever been. The redhead hadn't even been this anxious when she was talking to the crowd at Bayville High, six months earlier. For some reason, the aura in the school's auditorium at the time, though a little iffy, had been better than the aura the university was giving off.

Finally, the redhead mutant reached the pedestal, and brought the microphone down to her level. She spoke in a loud, strong voice, seemingly not affected by Robert Kelly's words.

"My name is Jean Grey," Jean began. In speech lessons with the Professor, she learned that it was normally customary to start off by saying her name. "I am a mutant, and attend Xavier's Institute. Mr. Robert Kelly said that all mutants are dangerous, and this is not the truth." That part she added in, just because she felt like she needed to. "Some of us might be, to people, but there are humans and mutants alike out there that are dangerous. The murders, the thieves, the criminals. But they are a mixture of mutants _and _humans, there is not just one side. Humans are not the good, mutants are not the bad, and vice versa. Either way, human or mutant, we are all people, despite our different abilities. Really, if you are a bad or good person, it depends on the way you act. At Xavier's, we learn to use our powers for good, to help people because of our newfound abilities, and also, to train with them so we _won't _hurt anybody. Not all mutants are evil, just like not all humans are evil. There's always a mix of good and bad."

She continued. "If you choose to let mutants attend universities around the country, then you are opening up a bright door for everyone. Please, consider it, think about this really hard, before you make your decision. Thank you, and goodnight."

Jean stepped down from the podium and then stepped off the stage, making her way back over to Scott and the Professor. Scott hugged her, while Professor X nodded approvingly. There were some scattered boos and whispers among the crowd, but they were quieter than with most of the other speeches.

"Well, I guess we go to the hotel, and wait until tomorrow to see the results," Scott said.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

The two X-Vans headed different ways down the highway, Jubilee going to the store, and Monet going back to Xavier's.

While on the road, something happened that made Jubilee almost swerve off. There was a cloud of blue sulfur, and a baby was suddenly in her lap, laughing happily. The mischievous Nightcrawler baby.

"Watch the road!" Mirage screamed from the back, as one of the babies beside her started crying.

Jubilee breathed heavily in and out and looked down at the Nightcrawler baby with a stern expression before turning her eyes back onto the road. And just in time, too, for she almost hit a eighteen wheeler, but just managed to veer out of the way.

"Sorry, a Nightcrawler baby just poofed onto my lap!" Jubilee called back.

"Wait? Isn't Nightcrawler with Rahne?" Karma asked from even further back, the third row of seats.

"Well, he used to be!" Jubilee said. "No we're stuck with him."

Just then, the communicator on her side buzzed. Jubilee plucked it from her belt and threw it back to Mirage, who picked it up, turning away to keep it out of the reaching hands of the Roberto infant.

"Yeah?" She asked into it.

"Have you seen Nightcrawler?" A voice asked from the other end. It was a little shrill, naturally, and from a little bit of a scare. Monet. There was the sound of babies crying in the background. One wailed really loud, and there was the sound of metal scratching metal with a _skint!_.

"Yeah, he's riding with us now," Mirage said. "He just . . .teleported in here."

"Apparently missed me!" Jubilee called with a grin. "Didn't want to stay with you, Monet!"

You could practically hear the eye roll in Monet's voice on the other end. "Just wanted to make sure." And then there was a click, and the noise in the communicator turned to static. Mirage threw the communicator to the seat, and the Roberto baby grabbed it and started chewing on it.

The X-Van pulled up to one of Bayville's local supermarkets no more than five minutes later. Jubilee took the keys out of the car and it stopped humming.

"Okay, so one of us has to stay in here with the babies," Jubilee told Mirage and Karma. She turned around to face them, and put the Nightcrawler baby in the seat next to her, next to the baby Beast. "And it ain't gonna be me."

Karma and Mirage looked uneasy. Mirage turned back to look at her fellow New Mutant, who bit her lip and shrugged.

"I guess I will, if I have to," Karma said.

Jubilee nodded. "Okay, good."

"But _at least _take two of them," Karma pleaded. "I mean, I'm just _one _person. There's _seven _babies in this car!"

Jubilee sighed, and looked at the two babies that were sitting beside Mirage, Roberto and Storm. Roberto was still chewing on the black communicator with the yellow X on it with his two front teeth, the only two teeth he had in his baby state. Then Jubilee looked at the two babies in the passenger's seat, and finally squinted to see the infants sitting with Shan.

"Okay, we'll take Roberto and Rogue," Jubilee decided, trying to think of two that wouldn't cause too much trouble. The Rogue baby seemed to be very quiet and non-mischievous, and since the sun was out, Roberto couldn't turn on his powers. She doubted that, being a baby, he would be smart enough to find the stored energy in his body, if he even had any at the moment.

Shan nodded with relief that they would actually take two of the babies, and she handed Rogue up to Danielle, who made sure not to touch the baby's bare skin. Jubilee reached across the seat and picked up Roberto, then turned back and opened the door.

"'Kay, let's go," Jubilee said. "We'll only be a few minutes, Shan."

Danielle exited the car and shut the door, at nearly the same time that Jubilee shut hers. They walked towards the store, striking up a conversation about the incident and talking quietly about it. At one point, when an old man with a cane walked by, Jubilee changed the topic of their conversation to music, and when the man was out of earshot, their talking changed back to the baby incident until they reached the store. When they got next to a crowd of large people, the conversation immediately changed to movies.

Back in the van, Shan was having some troubles. Right when Jubilee left and closed the car door, Nightcrawler started crying, and the Kitty baby, as well as the Storm baby, joined in the chorus. The Hank baby just looked at them with an intelligent expression, his eyes portraying thoughts that they were acting stupid, like: _Why are you crying? There's no reason, really._

Shan picked up the Kitty baby in her left arm, and the Bobby baby in her right, and moved up a seat, setting Bobby down, and picking up Storm.

When Bobby looked up and realized that he had been put down for Storm, he felt dejected, and started wailing, fat tears streaming down his cheeks. Karma picked him up and sighed, rocking all three of the babies on her lap.

Kurt still cried in the front seat of the car, but, an idea sparked in his mind. Of course, he was a baby, so who knew what he really was thinking, but suddenly, a cloud of blue smoke filled his place, and when it disappeared, he wasn't there anymore.

Karma saw this and groaned. She set the Bobby baby down once more, ignoring his cries, and yanked her communicator from her X-Belt and rung up Jubilee.

In the baby isle of the supermarket, Jubilee was picking out a few jars of baby food, because Jubilee and Danielle decided that the X-Babies, as they decided to call the newly turned babies when they were walking into the store, would be hungry. Danielle was putting some diapers and other baby changing needs when suddenly, there was a cry from the isle next to them.

"Demon! It's a demon! A monster baby!" A woman with a shrill voice yelled.

Instantly, Jubilee's eyes shot up to Danielle's. They locked eyes for a moment, before Jubilee started to run down the isle, hoping that Danielle stayed with the other two babies. Mirage might have followed her fellow New Mutant, if it wasn't for Jubilee's communicator, which was still in Roberto's mouth, buzzing. Roberto was so startled that he dropped to the communicator to the ground and just stared at it, before he started crying.

Danielle picked him up off of the cart and starting rocking him in her arms, were started to calm him down. The Native American girl picked up the black and yellow communicator and clicked a button, putting it to her ear.

"What?"

Shan's voice came through. "Umm. . .Danielle, is Nightcrawler with you guys again?"

"Jubilee just ran off to find him," Danielle said.

"Wait, what happened?" Shan asked, a little worried.

"Some woman is just complaining about a demon baby," Danielle said, trying to reassure her friend that everything was fine.

"Okay. . ." Shan said. There was a click, and then static silence. Danielle sighed and popped the communicator back in the cart. She put the Roberto baby back in as well, of course being more gentle than with the walkie-talkie.

During Danielle's and Shan's conversation, Jubilee went to rescue Kurt. The woman had already ran screaming from the isle, off to find someone to help her. Jubilee looked down the isle, worried for a minute. She'd never had a very close bond with Kurt, just a little friendship, but when he was a baby. . .things just seemed to be a lot worse if the X-Men and New X-Men were to get hurt while being infants. They seemed more innocent, and way more adorable, to cute to get kicked around like the mutants normally were.

Finally, Jubilee sighed and smiled a little bit, seeing Kurt's tail wagging from behind a display of Campbell's Soup. Jubilee ran over to him and picked him up off of the ground, just as the one security guard of the store and the woman turned the corner into the soup and other condensed foods isle.

"There he is!" The woman said, pointing at the blue infant in Jubilee's hands. "He just popped in out of nowhere in a cloud of smoke and -"

"Ma'am, please," the security guard said, putting a hand on her shoulder. He was a guy in his mid-thirties, actually pretty fit for just being mall security.

The guard looked at Jubilee. "That baby yours?"

"Umm, not technically mine, but I'm watching him," Jubilee said, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Just make sure he doesn't do that again, okay?" The man asked.

Jubilee was generally surprised by his reaction. "Oh, yeah sure. He'll get a. . .spanking for that." She looked down at the Kurt baby in her arms. "That was bad! He's normally . . .better." Because of course, good wasn't exactly the word for it. "Sorry."

The man nodded. "It's okay. No harm done." He looked down at the woman, who still looked a little shocked, but also had a look of hatred in her eyes. "Right ma'am? No harm done. Just a little baby."

The woman glared at Nightcrawler, then to Jubilee. "He _is _a mutant, right?"

Jubilee rolled her eyes. "Yeah, he's not a demon, he's just a. . .baby."

"A mutant baby," the woman said with disgust, seeming to raise her head in a fashion that seemed to state that she was too good to be around the babe.

"And I'm a mutant too," Jubilee said, her eyes flashing. "And I'm gonna spark your butt out of this place if you say one more thing about it."

The woman's eyes widened. "Is that a threat?"

Jubilee rolled her eyes and started walking away. "Something like that," she muttered to herself, then called back to the woman, "Just don't mess with us, okay?"

There was a "humph!", and Jubilee heard the woman turn on her heals, back to her waiting basket of goods.

Jubilee walked down the isle, past all of the different brands of condensed soup, the canned fruits and vegetables, and other various canned items, before coming out into the wide isle were the meat was kept in freezers. She turned into the next isle to see Danielle coming toward her, pushing a cart filled with baby food and diapers and powder and other baby necessities.

"We going?" She asked, having overheard bits of the conversation that Jubilee had with the lady and the security guard.

"Yeah, let's get out of here," Jubilee said, and led the way to the check out counters.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

When Jubilee, Shan and Danielle came back to the Mansion, they were greeted by chaos. Wither, more commonly called Kevin, was chasing a cluster of Jamie babies who were crawling every which way on the floor, trying to find the real one. Monet was flying around, gathering up Ray in her arms and almost getting shocked for it. The other babies were wandering around aimlessly, causing trouble.

Jubilee almost smirked and called, "Okay guys, get them all to the rec. room!" Monet and Kevin looked at her. Kevin nodded, while Monet seemed to want to give Jubilee a dirty look, but she followed the orders and started flying around - literally, using her power of flight - and gathered up Sam and Wolverine in her arms, along with Ray.

Eventually, the five mutant teenagers got all of the X-Babies rounded up and got them all into the rec. room. They made sure to keep them away from anything that would cause harm to them (mainly because the Forge baby got hit in the head with a book), so that meant keeping them away from the pool table, the bookshelf, and the T.V. remote. So, naturally, the New Mutants plopped all of the babies on the ground and turned on the T.V., to a station that purposely played little kid cartoons all day long. And that literally meant _all _day long, because the time was already nine thirty, when most little kids were supposed to be put to bed.

Shan and Danielle went into the kitchen to prepare food for the babies, while Jubilee, Monet and Kevin to watch over them.

Jubilee took the Nightcrawler baby in her hands, as well as a diaper and some other baby changing necessities, and brought him over to the ping pong table, where she set him down.

"Oh, gross," she said as she took off his clothes - right now, since he was a baby, it didn't matter.

Jubilee quickly washed him up and changed him as best she could, then brought the blue baby back to the couch, and sat him next to the Beast baby, who looked to be reading a short picture book, which, considering the age they all were, would have been amazing. But yet again, Beast was pretty much a genius when he was an adult, so why not when he was a baby?

"Any more diapers I need to change?" Jubilee asked Monet reluctantly.

"Check," Monet said, without taking her eyes off of the book that she was reading.

"You know, the three of us are supposed to be watching them, not the two of us," Jubilee said, narrowing her eyes.

Monet looked up, blinked, and put her book on her lap. "I don't see Kevin around."

Jubilee's eyes narrowed even more, and she looked around the room, first around the couch, then everywhere else.

She sighed exasperated. "Where'd he run off to?" She muttered to herself.

"I believe that he is chasing Logan around in the hallway," Monet said, using her powers of telepathy.

Jubilee sighed. "I'm gonna go get him. Stay here and _watch _the babies, will you?"

Ten minutes later, an exhausted Kevin and an exhausted Jubilee came back to the rec. room, prepared for trouble, but actually found the babies calm. Most of them had had their share of food, and a few were still nibbling on a little something. Some of them even looked ready to fall asleep.

"Oh, thank God," Jubilee said as she plopped down on the ground. Kevin led the Wolverine baby over to Shan, who started feeding him some mushed up baby food.

Two hours later, when most of the babies were asleep, save Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Jamie-of course-Rahne came into the rec. room, carrying the newly repaired machine of Forge's. She set it down on the ground and did a few last minute touch ups, and then looked to the other five New Mutants.

"I got it, now," she said. "Any time. I think. Hopefully. If not, the Professor and Jean will be able to figure it out." She offered a small smile at the end. The bags under her eyes and her expression made it seem like she was ready to pass out any minute.

"Wait!" Shan said. "I have to do something!"

She ran out of the room, and a few minutes later, came back holding a disposable camera. Shan went over to Nightcrawler, Wolverine and Jamie-who were watching _Wow Wow Wubbzy_-and took a few pictures of them, then took pictures of all of the rest of the babies.

"Just incase, you know, we need blackmail or something," she said. "Or . . .they're just going to be fun to have around."

Jubilee smiled mischievously. "Good idea. That'll be fun."

"We all ready, now?" Rahne asked as she turned the age dial to a weird suggestion, but found that it was actually the best one - normal.

There was a flash of white light, and the whole room was covered by it. When the light died down, all of the X-Men were sleeping or standing in the spots where they were when they were just babies.

Rahne sighed and smiled, then almost literally laid down and passed out.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

"I can't believe they said no," Jean said quietly, her head buried in Scott's shoulder, her voice almost muffled by his shirt. "I'm not going to college."

Scott closed his eyes. He had let his anger out before, not on _anyone_, they had to be thankful. He rubbed her back as she cried into his chest.

"I know, Jean, I'm sorry."

The Professor, though he wouldn't show it, was angry and a little sad. He looked at Jean and Scott, Scott sitting in the driver's seat, and Jean sitting in the passenger's seat. It was the day after all of the speeches and drama, around eleven AM. They had woken up at seven to hear what the university had decided. . .and it was far from good news for mutants. No mutant was to attend college, not now, in the United States of America. This had also called attention to other countries, and they had heard that Australia and places in Europe were thinking about banning mutants from their universities as well.

They'd lost. The X-Men had lost. For once. It wouldn't be their biggest failure, but it was their first, and it would be hard one a lot of the students.

Scott climbed out of the car, leaving Jean to cry along, and helped the Professor in his wheel chair. They were, of course, back at the Mansion. Jean got out of the car, and walked to the Mansion in Scott's arms all the way, still sobbing, but her sobs were now much more of dry sobs - she had cried so much that she didn't think she'd ever be able to cry again.

They entered the house, and everything seemed fine, until they passed the rec. room. All three, even Jean, did a double take and went into the room. Five of the six New Mutants were passed out on the ground (Monet had gone back to her room). There were jars of baby food scattered in one corner of the room, and a trash bag with diapers in another.

_Jubilee, Shan, Danielle, Kevin, Rahne. _The Professor called out, telepathically in their minds.

Jubilee was the first to wake up, groggily. She looked up at the three and smiled.

"Boy, do we have something to tell you."

**In the next installment of X-Men: Evolution: Season Five Mystique finally gets her revenge on Nightcrawler and Rogue! See what horrible things she has in store for the both of them! Meanwhile, the Brotherhood causes a distraction, causing havoc in the city of Bayville!**


	10. Shadowed Lives, Part One, Intro

** I know it has almost been a year since I updated this story, and so I don't expect any of the people that used to read this story back, but maybe some new readers will come along . . . ? Maybe? Hopefully? :)**

** I work on empty promises, evidently . . . and my inspiration has never really been high. Maybe it will be better over the summer, but I can't really promise anything . . . :/ But enjoy these few chapters! :)**

**By the way, this quote thing is new. :D *points below* I kind of took it off of a Nightcrawler Origins story that I read. O_O If I remember to put it at the beginning of every chapter it _will_ be at the beginning of every chapter. XD It's a quote from somewhere in the chapter to hopefully spark your interest a bit! :D**

_". . . there is so much in this deal for you . . . better training, we can fix this dreadful house up . . . You could **beat** the X-Men."_

**Chapter Ten: Shadowed Lives, Part One, Intro**

_"Are you boys willing to . . . help me?" A low, somewhat malicious voice asked from it's place on the beaten up, pee green recliner chair._

_ "What's in it for us, huh, Blue Lady?" And ugly, short teenager asked, perched like a frog on the couch opposite it, another disgusting color: dirty brown. He stared at her with large, yellow eyes, but the woman only rolled her's._

_ "Oh, a lot . . . better training, for one," she told the teenagers sitting cramped together on the small couch across from her. "I'll admit, I didn't train you well last time . . . you weren't ready, or willing. This time, however, I'll have some help, and we'll be able to do this." She pointed behind her to a man standing behind the recliner. He smiled – a wide, somewhat mad smile, his eyes dancing with an orange fire, much like the color of his hair, and his face seeming to light up with a crazy cheerfulness._

_ "Him?" A tall boy with long brown hair said in disbelief. "He's just some crazy nut from Magneto's crew!"_

_ The young man with the vibrant orange hair stepped forward and leaned in closer to the boys, his eyes flowing with a dark, fiery light._

_ "The name's Pyro," the young man said, and a ball of fire erupted in his hand, illuminating his face as well as the boy's. The boy with the long, brown hair leaned back slightly, his eyes narrowing. He tried not to show any fear, but he didn't want his face to be ignited by the fire, either. _

_ "And don't forget that I can whip your ass if I really want to," Pyro said with a triumphant smirk, sensing the boy's uneasiness. He stepped back behind the blue lady's chair, and started to play with the fire like it was a rubber ball._

_ The blue lady rolled her yellow eyes and continued. "As I was saying . . . there is so much in this deal for you . . . better training, we can fix this dreadful house up . . . You could **beat** the X-Men." Her eyes flashed with a wicked electric light, and she smiled at the boys viciously._

_ "Whoa now, you actually think we can do that?" A skinny boy with unnatural white hair asked, almost too fast for any of the people in the room to pick up his words. But the blue woman did, and she smiled even deeper, even crueler._

_ "Yes, I do," she told them. "With the proper training."_

_ "So you won't abandon us this time?" A slow, deep voice asked. It belonged to the largest person in the room, a horribly overweight boy that was sitting on the middle of the couch, cramming the other boys to the edges._

_ "Oh, that depends," the woman said with a small smirk. "On whether you prove yourselves or not."_

_ "And . . . how do we do that?" The ugly, toad-like boy asked._

_ The blue lady shrugged. "I will decide on that."_

_ The room was silent for quite some time, before the blue woman asked, "Well, what do you say?"_

_ The room was quite for some seconds. The four boys exchanged looks, wondering to each other if they should accept the blue woman's offer. They began conversing in low voices, and came to one conclusion: there was more good than bad. A chance to fix this place up . . . they couldn't deny that, could they? And even better, the opportunity to vanquish the X-Men! How amazing that would be! They turned to the blue woman simultaneously, and all was quiet for another few moments, before the boy with the white hair spoke up._

_ "Yeah, we accept," he said, and the blue lady smiled lightly, though there was no warmness to it whatsoever._

_ "Good," she said, looking at each of the boys in turn, and then to the young man with the bright orange hair. "I'd say that we fix this place up now, wouldn't you?"_

_ He grinned and spoke in his Australian accent. "Yeah, I'd say that'd be good. I don't want to be living with the rodents."_


	11. Shadowed Lives, Part Two

___"Yes, Mastermind, I know the risks. __Just do it. She can't remember what happened tonight. She can't remember it, or me. It's better if I just leave. She'll be safer that way . . ."_

**Chapter Eleven: Shadowed Lives, Part Two**

"Hey Rogue, vant to valk home vith me?" A voice called, strongly accented in German.

Rogue sighed and turned around, spotting a teenage boy running up to her. He had an average height and build, along with somewhat long, black hair that was often tinted with blue. He smiled widely at her as he came to a halt next to her, panting somewhat from running all the way across the lawn of the school and the street.

"Vell, can I valk vith you?" The boy asked again, looking up at her.

Rogue looked about ready to say 'no', but sighed and nodded. "Sure, Kurt."

Kurt grinned. "Awesome!"

They walked in silence for a few minutes, down side streets and past park cars, before Kurt had to break the silence.

"So . . . that whole baby incident a couple veeks ago vas interesting, _nein_?" He asked, kicking at a stone on the ground and then looking up at her, tilting his head slightly.

"Oh . . . um, yeah, it was," Rogue agreed. It actually was very interesting . . . even if some of the stories that the New Mutants told were quite embarrassing. Jubilee, Danielle, and Shan had simply adored them as babies, and kept on saying how they should have all stayed that way.

Kurt looked at her with a concerned expression. "Are you okay, Rogue?"

Rogue looked at him, somewhat bewildered before smiling lightly. "Yeah . . . Ah'm -"

But she was cut off by the loud screech of car wheels coming from the end of the block. Rogue, as well as Kurt, whirled around, and saw a large black jeep barreling toward the light that they were standing at, waiting to cross the street. As it came closer and closer, loud music blared from the speakers inside the car, and Rogue's nose scrunched in disgust, and she almost covered her ears to try and force the music out of her head. The jeep got closer and, just as Kurt and Rogue were crossing the street, it made a sharp turn and nearly ran them over at the cross walk.

Kurt grabbed one of Rogue's gloved hands and pulled her out of the way. They both tumbled forwards and landed hard on the concrete. A numb pain broke out onto Rogue's left shoulder and she groaned, sitting up slowly and cradling it with her right arm. Kurt sat up, wincing a little at a pain in one of his wrists. The driver and passengers of the jeep laughed meanly as they drove away. The two teenage boys in the back stood up and threw some well aimed water balloons at Rogue and Kurt, and then all four of the boys laughed some more as they disappeared around the corner of a street a block ahead.

Rogue stood up, glaring around at the few adults and kids that had been watching. Some of them looked bewildered, but most were smirking openly or behind their hands. Rogue growled at them and stalked off, Kurt tripping to catch up to her.

"Hey Rogue!" He said loudly, finally catching up to her as she entered an alleyway. "Are you alright?"

Rogue turned and glared at him. "No, Kurt, Ah am not alraght."

Kurt looked down at the ground, and then back up to his 'sister'. "Vell . . . vhat's vrong? Bezides zose boys."

"Nothin', Kurt, Ah'm just havin' a bad day!" Rogue said, her bottom lip trembling somewhat.

Kurt nodded slowly. "_Ja_ . . . me too. Zey, ze mutant haters, zey were bad today, no?"

Rogue looked up at him, briefly seeing the boy behind the image inducer that he wore on his wrist. Blue and fuzzy, with a demon's tail, yellow eyes, pointy ears, two toed feet, and three fingered hands. His face still look elfish, but that was the only part of him that looked somewhat similar to his true form. Even the shape of his body was different, being slimmer and more hunched over when he wasn't wearing his image inducer.

Slowly, Rogue nodded, showing a weakness that she rarely showed to anyone. The fact that she was sensitive. That she sometimes wanted a boyfriend, to hold her as Scott held Jean, to tell her that everything would be alright. But she couldn't have that. The closest thing that she had to family right now was Kurt. He was technically her adopted brother, thanks to Mystique, her adopted 'mother', and as of late, they had seemed to be getting closer and closer.

They started to walk down the alley slowly, before Kurt sighed. "I hate zem. I can't say zat around ze Professor, because he will lecture me about the need of coexistence between mutants and humans . . . but I hate zem."

Rogue paused and looked at him. "Yeah, sometimes Ah -"

But she was cut off my a swish of wind in front of her. The force made her close her eyes, and when she opened them again, Kurt had fallen to the ground, unconscious, a large bruise starting to form on the side of his head.

Rogue's eyes widened and she took one of the gloves off of her hands, looking around the alleyway skeptically, knowing that the person – or people – that had attacked Kurt would try and attack her, too.

She felt another swoosh of wind, and then was being pushed back. Rogue reached out her un-gloved hand and groped around for the person that was pushing her, her bare hand finally making contact with the person's skin. Soon, he was slumped on the ground, and Rogue was looking down upon the unconscious figure of Pietro Maximoff.

Rogue smirked and started to back up slowly. She attempted to look around, but was grabbed from behind and felt a meaty hand place it's self over her mouth and nose. She wriggled around in the large person's arms and was soon gasping for breath that was not coming. Rogue looked over to the side and saw a short, unattractive teenage boy snickering at her. He was standing beside a young man with bright, orange hair. Toad . . . and Pyro? Why was Pyro there, with Toad? With the Brotherhood? She knew that Avalanche could only be closer by, as Blob was holding her and Pietro was knocked out on the ground. The Brotherhood was there . . . attacking her and Nightcrawler. Not that that was out of the ordinary, but most of the time, the the Brotherhood attacked when the X-Men had done something to them, stupid or not. Otherwise . . . otherwise, they had higher orders.

Rogue's eyes widened and she struggled harder. Whoever they were working for, nothing good was going to come out of it. In her panic, she only lost more oxygen, and soon her vision started to get fuzzy. She could hear the faint laughs as they faded away with her vision and the buzz in her ears. Rogue fell into unconscious, still being held by Blob, who laughed cruelly at her loss.

* * *

Kurt opened his eyes slowly, and just laid on the ground for a moment. His eyes were glazed over and the pain on the side of his head was immense. After a few minutes, he sat up, blinking, and looked around the space in which he was in. It was dark. And damp. The floor below him was cold and made of wood, but the wood was unsteady and creaked when Kurt simply sat up.

He examined the room for a few more seconds before his eyes landed on Rogue, passed out on the ground a few feet away from him. Kurt crawled over to her and shook her shoulder to wake the goth girl up. The thundering pain on the side of his head had calmed down somewhat, but he could still hear and feel it pounding lightly against his head.

Rogue groggily woke up, blinking to get used to the absence of light. She sat up almost immediately and looked around, then cursed.

"Ah can't believe this!" Rogue exclaimed, taking several careful breaths to make sure that he lungs were working properly. "Why did they want us?"

Kurt shrugged. "I do not know . . . but Rogue, ve should leave! No one's here, so I can teleport us out of here!"

"Yeah, good idea," Rogue muttered, though her tone implied that what he said was completely obvious.

Kurt nodded and grabbed her sleeved covered arm, but nothing happened. He scrunched his eyebrows together and concentrated harder, but still to no avail. Yet again, the blue mutant tried to 'poof' himself and Rogue out of the room, but nothing happened.

Sighing exasperatingly, he dropped her arm and crossed his arms over his chest. Rogue watched, smirking slightly.

"Yah look lahke a little kid."

Kurt sent her a glare. "If ve can't get out, zen vhat are ve supposed to do! Zey're going to come back, a who knows vhat zey are going to do to us?"

"I don't know." Rogue sighed. "But . . . they took your image inducer, too."

Kurt cursed and looked down at himself, and sure enough, his 'human' form had been replaced by his natural one. Blue, short fur and yellow eyes, with pointed ears, a devil's tail, and oddly numbered fingers and toes.

"Ve can't get out of here, and zey took my image inducer! Vhy - ?"

But a chilling, feminine laugh cut him off, and both Rogue and Nightcrawler turned to see a blue woman standing in the doorway. She was leaning on the door jam, smiling maliciously at them, her yellow eyes alight with an odd sense of bliss. Standing behind her was the Brotherhood; Quicksilver, the smart-mouthed speedster. His twin sister Wanda, looking positively bored and uninterested with her surroundings. Toad, a short, ugly teenage boy. Blob, a tall, very obese boy that was just as unappetizing as Toad. Avalanche, a tall teenager with long brown hair and a bad-boy smirk. However, there was also another person, a young man, probably only nineteen or twenty years old. He had wild orange hair and an overzealous smile, and both Rogue and Nightcrawler recognized him immediately; Pyro, former Acolyte of Magneto.

"Vhat are you doing here? Vhat happened to our powers?" Kurt demanded, taking a step forward, but shrinking back slightly as Pyro started to play with a fire ball in his hands.

The blue lady, Mystique, ignored him and moved into the room, the gaggle of boys following behind her.

"You deserted me after Apocalypse," Mystique said scornfully, stepping closer and closer to them.

"We deserted you?" Rogue asked in close to outrage. "Ye're the one that abandoned us!"

Mystique smiled a cold, heartless smile. "Oh, you think that?"

"_Ja_, ve do!" Kurt shouted, anger bubbling up inside him.

Mystique looked from Rogue to Kurt, studying them impassively.

"I did not abandon you by choice, my son . . ." Mystique said, her expression unreadable.

"_Ja_, you did!" Kurt said, crossing his arms and glaring at her. "I saw! Vhy did you let Magneto do zat?"

Mystique laughed sharply. "Magneto? Oh, I forgot . . . you really think that that is your true past?"

Kurt blinked, confused, and looked from Mystique to Rogue. The latter knit her eyebrows and shook her head, showing signs that she did not want her 'brother' to believe Mystique. But Kurt was curious . . . very curious. He looked back and forth between them before Mystique gave another cold laugh.

"It is not, Kurt _Wagner_," Mystique said, stepping closer to him, so that their face's were inches apart. It was really remarkable how much they looked alike, how much the son resembled his mother. Kurt swallowed, but didn't look away. Their identical yellow eyes stared at each other for quite the time, until Mystique sighed and stepped back again.

"Your past . . . Mastermind was very good at masking it . . ." Mystique said.

"Vhat . . . vhat do you mean?" Kurt asked, tilting his head to the side, his eyes widening.

"Well . . . you will find out soon enough," Mystique said stoically. "But until I'm ready . . ." She looked back at Blob, whose smile was a cross between something stupid and something cruel. He lumbered over to Kurt, and before Kurt or Rogue could do a thing about it, Blob hit Kurt over the head with his large fist. Kurt fell to the ground, yet again unconscious, and Rogue gasped. She tried to go over to him, but Mystique and Avalanche stopped her.

"No, Rogue . . . right now it's your turn," Mystique said quietly. "Your past isn't all that clear either . . . so let me help clear it up for you." She looked back toward the door in which she and the Brotherhood had entered. "Mastermind!"

* * *

Back at the X-Mansion, all of the kids were busying themselves in looking for Rogue and Kurt. It was a Thursday, and it was getting quite late. Neither Rogue nor Nightcrawler had said that they would be out that night, and they had both missed dinner (which was extremely rare, if even possible, for Kurt).

Monet St. Croix walked in through the front door. She tilted her head slightly in defiance when she saw Jubilee and Rahne walking through the foyer. Monet hated Jubilee. She was so spunky, hard headed, _hot_ headed. Thought she was just about the best thing in the world. Always liked to be in charge, young as she was.

"Find anythin'?" Rahne asked Monet politely, smiling at the older girl. Rahne didn't like Monet that much either . . . but she thought it only best to try and be polite.

"No, they are not outside, as far as I can tell," Monet said, her 'perfect' accent and grammar rivaling Rahne's.

"Well, where else are they gonna be?" Jubilee asked indignantly, crossing her arms over her chest and looking at Monet with some distaste.

Monet rolled her eyes and sent Jubilee a glare so cold that it made both Jubilee and Rahne feel uneasy. "Maybe they are not at the mansion, Jubilation."

"DO NOT call me that!" Jubilee said forcefully, glaring at Monet even deeper than before.

Monet shrugged and started to float off of the ground. "I do not understand why you do not like _real_ your name."

Jubilee scoffed. "It's too preppy. Sounds stuck up. I really don't need that. And besides, at least Jubilee is a nickname for it . . . and a good codename." She smirked, looking up at the floating mutant before her, who scowled a stuck-up scowl of her own, thrusting her chin into the air slightly.

"Jubilation, if you must know, I did not choose my codename." M informed her fellow teammate.

Jubilee raised an eyebrow, and asked in mock disbelief, "Then who did?"

Monet rolled her eyes, and without a word, flew off down the corridor toward the kitchen, were a few other residents of the mansion could be heard talking.

Jubilee sighed and crossed her arms. "Honestly, I don't know why I put up with that infuriating priss."

Rahne smirked, and started to walk down the hallway to the kitchen, trailing Monet. "I don't see how either of yeh can put up wit' each other."

Jubilee rolled her eyes and walked after her friend.

When they entered the kitchen, they found a Storm, Magma, Wither, Monet, and a few Jamies talking with each other strenuously in the setting sun. Storm looked purely agitated, Wither as guarded as ever, Magma fearful, Monet impassive, and the Jamies all wore different expression, one with a confused face, one with a scared one, and one with an anxious one. All together, all of their conflicting emotions in such tiny of a space was quite comical, but of course, this was no time for anything to be said as funny.

Storm noticed Jubilee and Rahne after a few seconds, and turned to them, her bright blue eyes pleading that they found something. Jubilee simply shook her head, and Storm's face fell slightly. Jubilee tugged Rahne over to the counter, and the two sat down on the high stools next to Kevin.

"Hey!" Rahne said brightly, smiling at him. It was enough to try and get him to talk . . . or even acknowledge one's presence. And most of them wanted to change that . . . at least the girls of the New Mutants did.

Kevin simply nodded at her greeting, his eyes briefly skidding over her before he looked back his hands, which were folded on the table inside his non-organic black gloves.

Rahne sighed. He looked so . . . sad. And lonely. Like a male version of Rogue. Only a little worse. He had absolutely _no_ friends, and, even more so, didn't seem to want any. He was like Rogue in so many ways, thinking that if he got near a person, he would kill them, even with all of the heavy, protective clothes that he wore. _ At least _Rogue had somewhat of an aptitude to make friends.

Suddenly, the door to the kitchen behind them slammed open, making all of them, even apathetic Monet and quiet Kevin, jump. They all spun around to face the door, Jubilee nearly falling off of her stool. Roberto was standing in the door, nearly breathless. He took in a few more deep breaths before speaking.

"The Brotherhood's causing trouble in Bayville. We have to go stop them.

* * *

Rogue was peeking into one of her worst nightmares: her own past. No wonder everything about it had seemed so distorted, so _wrong_. Because it _had_ been wrong. _Everything_ that she had remembered . . . it was wrong. Irene, her home back in Mississippi, her few friends, her school, even her favorite band . . . wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, _wrong_.

Off in the distance, Rogue could hear Mystique's voice over her head, sometimes taunting, sometimes leering. But she couldn't hear a word the blue woman was saying, just the tone of her voice. As if she was in a dream – no, a nightmare – that was impossible to come out of.

The first vision that she had had, right when Mastermind had entered the room and started to walk to her, raising his hands . . . it was a vision of her mother and father. Her _real_ mother and father. Not foster parents. This she knew was true. She could feel it. _This_ felt right. Completely and utterly right.

* * *

_ This glimpse of her shadowed life was a memory from when she was only five-years-old. The memory was set in a train station. Gleaming, polished, light brown wood, white floors looking as if they were made of marble, busy travelers . . . a nice enough place. But when her mother bent down and kissed a five-year-old version of herself on the cheek, Rogue felt dread. Her father was sending her a most distasteful look, as if she was a fly that he wanted to swat. Finally, the soft hand entwined with Rogue's let go, and her mother walked to her father, who grabbed Rogue's mother's hand gruffly and pulled her away into the crowd. _

_ Little Rogue stood there for a few minutes, looking blankly and in confusion to where her parents had been standing. Suddenly, she looked around frantically. Rogue gripped the straps of her purple backpack tighter, spinning around in place. She started to run around the train station in panic, tears streaming down her cheeks and off her chin. _

_ Without sense of her surroundings, Rogue bumped into someone. She looked up, her eyes glassy and red from crying, her pale cheeks wet and also red. A woman was standing there, a woman with hazy blue eyes and a walking stick. Her large sunglasses had fallen with a hollow clank to the floor._

_ Another woman stepped up to her, the problem of the child unknown until she looked down. Her dark eyes widened slightly, and she daintily tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear._

_ Rogue whimpered and pulled back, but the woman grabbed her arm gently, smiling tenderly down at her._

* * *

And that was when Rogue was pulled out of the first vision. She looked incredulously. "You … my parents . . . my name is . . . Anna Marie D'Ancanto?"

Mystique smiled somewhat coldly, though there was a little bit if affection in her eyes. "Yes, Rogue. That is your _real_ name."

"I knew it was Anna Marie, but . . . but . . ." Rogue stuttered, unable to find words.

Mystique gave a harsh, short laugh and looked at Mastermind. "Continue."

* * *

_The next vision was one of a house, small and worn looking on the outside, but warm and inviting on the inside. There were white walls in the hallways with a few pictures and shelves with nicknacks on them, but otherwise, the walls were bare._

_ Rogue could practically smell the cinnamon and cocoa scent coming from the kitchen, and after the hallway, that was where her vision had taken her._

_ The same five-year-old Rogue was sitting at the table, the purple backpack still strapped to her back. Her previous tears had made her eyes crusty and bloodshot. She sniffled every minute of so, sipping the warm cocoa a few times, but not very much._

_ Irene sat across from her, along with the other woman: Mystique. Yes, that was definitely Mystique. Shape-shifted into a younger form of the Principal Darkholme that Rogue knew and hated. Irene gazed at Rogue with unseeing eyes, frowning while she did so, a small crease of concentration appearing between her brows. She was young, too, by twelve years, and much prettier. Despite being blind even back then, Destiny was a beautiful woman of probably 30 or so years old. Mystique was equally pretty, much more so than the older version of Darkholme._

_ "So don't worry child, you are going to stay here, with us," Irene said serenely, smiling softly at Rogue. Her gaze was in the right direction, but was a little off from the young girl. _

_ The little Rogue simply looked at the woman, swallowing and nodding, as if saying something would get her in trouble. Rogue could practically feel the emotions of the young memory of herself coursing through her. In a little kid's mind, she was thinking that Irene didn't look very happy . . . and whenever her parents didn't look happy, it was never good, so another adult looking unhappy positively couldn't be good, either._

_ "Please don't worry," Irene said softly, reaching out a hand and putting it on top of Rogue's small one. "We will take care of you, there is nothing to be scared of."_

_ Rogue nodded and after swallowing another sip of hot chocolate, finally had the courage to speak again, "Are my parents coming back."_

_ Irene smiled sadly, her hands still atop Rogue's. "No, child. It's not safe with them anymore."_

There was another memory immediately after.

_Rogue was now eleven, with shoulder length auburn hair tied in two low pigtails. She bounded through the hallway that had been seen before, now with more pictures on it. They were all of Rogue, Irene, and Mystique, through all the stages of Rogue's life from ages five to eleven. _

_ At the end of the hall, Irene was removing a picture from the wall. It was one that had been there before Rogue had even arrived, one of the oldest pictures on the wall. It was one of Mystique and Destiny, looking like they were just a mere twenty years old, maybe even still teenagers. Irene carefully placed the picture in a moving box with Rogue's help. _

_ Rogue sighed as she started to help take down her first school picture. "Why do we have to move? I like it here. I like my school, and my friends, and . . . leaving Sarah will be absolutely awful." Sarah, the Rogue watching the memory noted with a start, being her best friend._

_ "I know, child, I know . . ." Irene said, placing the picture of smiling but sad-eyed young Rogue into the moving box. Rogue got a vague feeling that it irritated her younger self to be called 'child'._

_ "Then why are we moving? It's not even for a job or anything."_

_ Irene sighed, straightening up and gazing towards where the girl's voice was coming from. "Because . . . it's not safe here anymore."_

_ "Not safe here?" Rogue asked indignantly. "How can it not be safe?"_

_ "Because . . . it is just not," Irene said quietly, taking down another school picture of Rogue in first grade without her two top front teeth. "Raven is gone, so it's not safe and we need to get young out of here."_

_ "So what if Raven's gone?" Rogue said, looking slightly upset, as if she thought that she could have won the argument. "She'll be back, she's done this before."_

_ Irene sighed again, placing Rogue's picture into the box. "I wish that were true, child."_

* * *

And yet again, right after this came yet another vision.

* * *

_ Rogue was now thirteen, her hair cut shorter and to her chin._

_ She was in the kitchen, making herself peanut butter a sandwich on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Truthfully, she and Irene had only moved more into South Mississippi, so not horribly far from their old home. But far enough that Sara wasn't her best friend anymore. Or really even her friend at all. Older Rogue did have a feeling, however, that Mystique had come back . . . at least once, probably more. But she was gone again._

_ Rogue poured herself a glass of red Kool-Aid and shouted, "Irene, want a sandwich? Some Kool-Aid?"_

_ After about ten seconds of no answer, she called out Irene's name, but no reply, and so tried again. Finally, Rogue pursed her lips in annoyance and put the Kool-Aid back in the fridge. She set her glass and the plate with her sandwich on it down on the counter, and went to venture the house in search of her adopted mother._

_ "Irene? Irene?" Rogue called. "**Honestly**, where are you?" She muttered as she walked around the house, finally stopping at a door that Rogue immediately associated to be Irene's 'office'. This house she knew . . . it was much more familiar. It was actually the house that she remembered living in with Irene._

_ Rogue almost knocked before she entered, but decided not to, and simply opened the door silently. When she opened it, she realize that it was open just a crack. _

_ When Rogue entered the room, and noticed Irene sitting in the chair before her desk, turned away from her. Rogue almost said something, but then hesitated. There was something . . . wrong. Irene was bent over, looking at something. But she couldn't see. Of course._

_ As Rogue padded quietly over behind her, she heard Irene muttering something. "Yes, yes . . . oh my . . . oh no . . ."_

_ As Rogue peered above Irene's shoulder, she saw the blind woman gripping a picture and a letter written carefully in brail in her hands. The thirteen-year-old Rogue managed to see a few faces, and some of them somewhat startled the older Rogue. Storm was in it, looking beautiful and even younger, smiling . So was Wolverine. He was standing next to Storm in the picture, actually smiling, and it was a genuine smile, not a Logan-like smirk. The rest of the people she didn't know; a boy, maybe a year or so younger than her memory self, was smiling broadly at the camera, and there was a teenaged male next to him with one arm around the boy, making him lean somewhat sideways. The other arm was ruffling the boy's red hair. The last person that Rogue could see was a very young woman with long, wavy blonde hair and elfish features. And, the older Rogue could have sworn, Charles Xavier was hidden beneath Irene's thumb._

_ Suddenly, Irene turned around, dropping the picture and the brail letter to the ground. She grabbed thirteen-year-old Rogue's arms and spoke in a monotonous, scratchy voice, "They'll come for you. They'll come for you." _

_ Irene's eyes were white. She was using her powers, seeing the future, quite unexpectedly. It scared the younger Rogue, and even startled the older one._

_ Thirteen-year-old Rogue struggled to free herself from Irene's grip, but the woman was strong and held onto her arms tightly. A few moments later, the white faded from Destiny's eyes and she was finally released from her vision. She thrust Rogue backwards as if she hadn't know that she had been holding onto the girl, and was startled by the fact. _

_ Rogue tripped and landed hard on her bottom on the carpet, staring up at her adopted mother with a sense of fear and shock in her eyes._

* * *

The mist that clouded the Rogue of the present's own eyes faded, and she blinked, yet again finding herself in the dark basement of the Brotherhood's mansion. Avalanche, Toad, and the rest of the Brotherhood weren't there anymore. The only people in the room were Mystique, Rogue, Mastermind, and an unconscious Kurt, in his true form, blue and furry.

Rogue looked up at Mystique, swallowing a lump in her throat before asking, "So that's . . . my past? You and Irene raised me . . and my parents . . . they . . ." She felt tears coming to her eyes and shut them tightly to keep her sobs in. "They abandoned me. Why?" She opened her eyes and gazed up at Mystique, as the watery pressure from her tears was gone for the moment.

Mystique shrugged. "Because . . . well . . . I assume you'll find that out on your own. Mastermind has one more thing to show you, Rogue."

* * *

_ In this lost memory, Rogue saw herself very similar to what she looked like now. She still had hair similar to what she had had when she was thirteen, short and auburn. The white streaks weren't there, so this must have been over a year before. She was wearing her trademark green and black gothic clothes, complete with the boots and thick bracelets. Her make-up was dark and her skin was pale, even more so than it had been in previous memories._

_ Rogue was walking down a street in her old town in Mississippi. The Rogue watching the memory couldn't help feel the foreshadowing that something was about to happen as her memory-self turned suddenly and began to walk down an alleyway, apparently a shortcut to her home that the Rogue watching the memory couldn't remember._

_ The alleyway was leering, dark, and dirty. It would have smelled of unpleasant things like trash and rats, but Rogue's memory-self didn't seem to be affected by it. Her pace, however, was quick, because the alley did make her uneasy._

_ Rogue saw the man step out of the shadows before her memory-self even knew what was coming. The Rogue watching the memory gasped and in vain tried to scream out, though of course, nothing happened. The man in the skin tight black shirt and loose black camo pants slunk toward the younger Rogue's back, and finally tried to hit her over the head._

_ The move didn't work out so well, because he only hit her hard on the shoulder, and sent the memory-Rogue into a state of panic. She kicked and punched around behind her, successfully hitting him with some good punches to the arms. The man stepped back a few paces, but tried to hit her again, to which Rogue put her hands out in front of her to try and defend herself, closing her eyes tight._

_ She opened them when she heard a strangled gasp coming from the man whose arms she had grasped. Not even realizing that she had done so, Rogue was stunned, and watched him convulse slightly with her mouth agape. The older Rogue could feel her memory-self's thoughts flowing through her own mind, thoughts like, 'what is he doing . . . or what am **I** doing?'. As Rogue held onto the man, her bangs started to turn their infamous white._

_ Suddenly, the man slumped against her, his eyes glazed over, staring, unblinking, downward, to where they had been trained on the girl. Rogue gasped and let go of him, fresh tears beginning to spring from her eyes, and fall down her cheeks._

_ A white mist tapped its self into the vision, and it turned into another memory of the same night, only a little amount of time later. _

_ Rogue was sitting in the kitchen of her old home, looking much like she had when she had been brought home to Irene and Mystique's old home, just older. Her eyes were bloodshot and somewhat glassy from tears, and her cheeks were stained red. There was a cup of cold cocoa sitting beside her, untouched. Rogue's memory-self looked so helpless and scared, that Rogue began to feel **sorry** for **herself**._

_ Irene was sitting across from her, glancing between Rogue and the kitchen door. Rogue, however, didn't seem to notice, and was blankly staring down at the table while rubbing the left fingers of her hand absentmindedly across the table, and repeating the action several times. _

_ Finally, after too much tense silence, a car was heard rolling up the driveway of the house. Irene quickly left the room, and when she came back, Rogue's memory-self looked up to see her standing with Mystique, and a man that the Rogue watching the vision knew._

_ Mastermind._

_ He looked her over and turned to Mystique. "Are you sure you want to try this, Mystique?"_

_ The woman, who looked exactly like Principal Darkholme, nodded. "Yes . . . I'm sure."_

_ "You know the risks?" Mastermind asked, scanning the faces of Mystique, Irene, and Rogue. "What might happen? She -"_

_ "Yes, Mastermind, I know the risks," Mystique said coldly. "Just do it. She can't remember what happened tonight. She can't remember it, or me. It's better if I just leave. She'll be safer that way, because **they** don't know about Destiny."_

_ Younger Rogue's expression turned to confusion as Mastermind stepped toward her, and before she could protest or even cry out, he had already raised his hands and his eyes had already turned white._

** Yes, well, there. ^_^ I had to change her past up a little bit, because I HATE how that didn't explain her past in the cartoon very well. Some of it is made up, mind you. And some of it fits with the plot of the 'season'. :) Notice the picture and how Mystique and Destiny kept saying stuff about 'they, they, they'? Yep. Plot. :) Anyone have ANY guesses on who the other people are in the picture, the young woman, man, and boy? I'm really curious, please tell me in a review! XD**

** Now off to the next chapter to find out about Kurt's past! :D!**


	12. Shadowed Lives, Part Three

_"You're not a demon even though you look like one . . . you're an angel because you act like one."_

**Chapter Twelve: Shadowed Lives, Part Three**

"Okay! You all know the drill!" Cyclops, X-Man uniform and visor on, shouted to the occupants of the van. Jean, who was sitting in the front, passenger's side seat, nodded and looked anxious. The rest of the X-Men or New X-Men mumbled 'yeses' and 'yeahs'.

"Head out!" Scott ordered, and as one, he, Jean, Storm, Iceman, Magma, Shadowcat, and Cannonball all piled out of the van, onto the streets of Bayville. They were parked very near to an alley, and the street was deserted except for them and the other X-Men stepping out of an identical van some feet away from them. However, there was definitely chaos happening in the street across the alley. The screams and other noises pertaining to a fight made that evident.

Scott and his team looked at each other before running down the alley, to the tumult happening on the other street.

When they got there, they scattered in different directions after their eyes locked on their targets. Cyclops, Jean, Wolverine, and Storm went for a very skinny boy with white hair, who was zigzagging in and out of sight. He was the hardest target, and so the best trained went for him. Sunspot, Cannonball, and Beast went to fight a very large blonde boy with a mohawk. Piotr and Magma went to attack a tall boy with a somewhat glass-looking dome over his head. Multiple and Shadowcat set off toward a girl with short black and red hair, who was flinging objects carelessly at people. Berserker and Iceman ran down the street for their target, a short teenage boy in an unappealing green suit.

Civilians ran around, screaming in terror, trying to get away from the attack. The obese blonde boy, not even aware that his adversaries were so near, laughed stupidly at them when he grabbed them in his arms and flung them in the air. Some of the landed on the hard concrete or on cars or even other people, screaming out in pain. Nobody was dead, but there were some serious injuries, and if things didn't calm down soon . . . well, the X-Men didn't want to think about that.

Something hit the back of the large blonde boy's neck, causing pain to shoot up it and into his head. He grunted and flung the person that he had in his hands to the ground. Luckily, Beast came tearing behind him, almost knocking the large boy known as Blob off of his feet, and caught the woman who was flying in the air, certainly to her death. He set her down gently on the ground, and turned to face his enemy, who was turned in the opposite direction, facing Sunspot and Cannonball.

As the four started to battle each other and more civilians were running away, the X-Men were starting to fight their other adversaries.

Berserker and Iceman were throwing insults back and forth between them and Toad, of whom they were battling. Most of the insults were petty, yet offensive, causing jerky movements with their powers and red faces.

Through their fight, a voice broke in. "Oi! Why doesn't one of you X-Men fight me?"

Iceman's eyes widened, and he turned around, leaving Berserker to battle Toad alone. To his great shock, he saw Pyro, a former Acolyte standing there. The firebug's smile was almost goading, challenging Iceman to a fight that Pyro thought his opponent couldn't win.

"Well, are you goin' to?" Pyro asked, grinning as he lit the fire-starters on his hands. His eyes danced with flames and a sense of joy.

Iceman barely had time to react before a jet of fire was sent toward him.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

As Rogue fell into nightmares of unconscious of what she had just seen, Mastermind stepped toward Kurt, still knocked out on the floor, hesitating before he raised his hands to activate his powers. He looked over at Mystique.

"Are you sure that you want to do this? This first one is of your own memory, I remind you."

"Yes, just get on with it, monkey man," Mystique shot back venomously, and though she knew the nickname was somewhat childish, she didn't really care.

Mastermind scrunched his eyes together, but did as she requested, and bent down next to Nightcrawler, blue and fuzzy with his image inducer removed. Matermind's eyes lit up as he started to show Kurt his first flashback, which sent the boy into a spiraling nightmare.

_A young version of Mystique as Raven Darkholme was talking to a man a few years older than her, clutching a bundle of deep red cloth in her arms. They were arguing, spitting nasty words and insults at each other. Within the folds of the dark cloth, something was stirring, crying out._

_ The man gave a hateful look to the small bundle. "Let us just shut it up now, Raven."_

_ Raven shook her head, pressing the baby closer to her chest. "No! I won't kill him! I won't!"_

_ "Ze townspeople, zey are coming, I can hear zem down ze lane," the man said in English thickly accented with German. "Zey are going to kill him anyvay, so vhy don't ve just do it, Raven? Show zem ze body, and zen let it vill all be done vith?"_

_ "Because he's my baby, and I won't let you!" Raven said, taking a step closer to the man, who gave her a look as if she was made of spiders. "Please, we can leave now, protect him, together. We don't have to kill him."_

_ The man scoffed, raising his hand as if to hit her. Raven flinched slightly and stepped back, her eyes glazed with soon to be shed tears. The man knit his eyebrows slightly, his eyes showing that he was sorry for her, but his expression and his words cold._

_ "No, Raven, I am sorry, but you must leave," he said in a grave voice, pointing toward the bedroom door. "Leave, and take zat demon zat is not mine vith you!"_

_ Raven looked like she was about to protest, but instead, she fled out of the door and down the hallway, only stopping to grab her coat from the rack and slid her boots on._

_ She slipped into the bitter and dark night. The snow that had recently fallen was glistening in the half-moon's light like a crystal, though no more snow was falling. The night was now clear and freezing. The cold nipped at Raven's face as she tied her scarf around her neck and set off down the road at a quick pace. She embraced her newborn baby close to her chest, as if afraid that the cold would kill him, or he would fall from her arms and to the cold, hard ground to his death._

_ As the woman cloaked in black hurried along the lane, she could see orange light coming toward her on the path. Just a little bit farther. Only a little bit farther. To the place where she had met him. Hopefully, he would answer her, because she knew that he could hear her._

_ As the orange lights got nearer and nearer, Raven turned onto a small lane leading to a bridge. Once she reached the bridge, she stopped and looked around._

_ "Azazel," Raven whispered into the darkness. "Azazel, please, come to me. I haven't seen you for six months, but I need a favor. For our son."_

_ All was quiet and still for a few moments, and then, there was a poof of brimstone and sulfur. Out of it stepped a tall man with somewhat elfish facial features, but demonic features everywhere else. Blood-red skin, a spaded tail, very pointy ears, black hair with sideburns, a cleanly-shaven beard, and a goatee. As the smoke stared to evaporate, the demonic man spoke._

_ "Mystique, why are you calling me?" He asked in an indifferent, aloof voice._

_ "It's . . . it's our son," Mystique said breathlessly, actually caught off guard by his immediate appearance. It was obvious that she didn't think that he would come._

_ The demon raised a sharp, black eyebrow. "Oh? What about him?"_

_ "Azazel, please, I need you to take him," Mystique said, thrusting the bundle out to the man that she addressed as Azazel. "He cannot stay with me any longer. The midwife saw him, and ran to the town. The townspeople are coming for him!"_

_ Azazel shook his head, pushing the bundle back toward her. "No, Mystique, I cannot." _

_ Raven looked up at him with wide, pleading eyes that were brimmed with tears. "Please, Azazel, take him somewhere safe. I will never contact you again, never ask you for anything, never try to find you . . . I swear on it."_

_ Azazel scoffed, waving a dismissive hand. "Raven, we both know that your promises are not well kept."_

_ "Please," she pleaded, the bundle outstretched in her hand. "Please, take him, put him somewhere safe. I **beg** it of you."_

_ His sharp eyebrows knit together, and it looked as if he was contemplating. _

_ The orange lights of the villagers grew closer. Some of them had turned, and were heading to the bridge to investigate the talking of Azazel and Mystique. Mystique gave Azazel one last beseeching look, the hood of her long coat falling back, revealing her whole pained face. He studied her carefully, eyebrows still knit, before they reclined and he whispered a quick order to her._

_ "When they come, throw him over the bridge." And with that, in a mix of sulfur and brimstone, he was gone._

_ As the acid-like smoke started to disappear, a small mob of townspeople tromped onto the bridge. All of their eyes almost immediately fell on Raven, and all of their looks were ones of fear, disgust, or confusion. Raven scanned the small crowd for a minute, before swallowing and untying a small part of the bundle in her hand, just enough to reveal the whole of the baby's face in the fire or flashlight light. She thought of Azazel's words, about throwing the baby over the bridge when the villagers came. She hoped to God – yes, God – that he was down there somewhere, ready to catch their baby. She didn't care if she never saw him again, she really didn't, she just wanted the baby to be safe . . ._

_ Raven raised the infant into the air, so his blue face was illuminated by the light. Some of the villagers gasped and several reached for hidden weapons, but in one quick motion, Raven threw the baby over the side of the bridge, down to the icy water below. The townspeople stopped in mid-motion, there expressions ones of disbelief. Hadn't this lady been the one to bore the child? Or was she another woman, just doing a 'good' deed?_

_ "He is gone," she told them in German, though her voice was full of contempt. "You can leave now."_

_ Raven looked at the villagers, who were all in different stages of shock, then let her eyes wander to over the bridge. She could see the outline of the small bundle with the baby tucked warmly inside still falling, but right before it would have hit the chilly water, there was a vaporization of smoke, and when it cleared, there was no baby or bundle, no crack in the thin ice or small, fragile body broke on it._

Nightcrawler sat bolt upright, blinking several times and grasping at the empty air before realizing where he was. His sudden start made Mastermind trip over himself backwards and land on the floor, but the monkey-like mutant quickly composed himself and stood up, looking over at Mystique for further instruction.

The blue mutant simply stepped past him and knelt down in front of her son, her yellow eyes staring into his identical ones. Kurt scooted back slightly, his mouth agape and his face wearing an expression of terror.

"You . . . I . . . vas zat real?" He asked quietly, earning a sharp laugh from Mystique.

"Yes, of course it was real, you idiot," she said, still bent down in front of him. Her eyebrows narrowed, making her yellow eyes look dangerous and contemplating. "That is your real past, not that silly nonsense that you assume was it from Rogue's petty dreams. They were nothing. Planted there just encase. I am not as dumb as you think, Kurt Wagner."

She stood up, back straight, lips pursed, a somewhat wondering look in her eyes. She was, of course, wondering how he would react to this next memory. It was another, and the last memory, of hers that she was going to show him.

"Mastermind . . . the next one please."

_It was later that night. Only just a little, but it had taken a half-hour for Raven to tell her story, __and for the townspeople to find it formidable. She had told them that she had pushed the 'demon mother' over the bridge, and when the villagers had come, she had thrown the child over. They had believed it after her 'sad' story of how the demon woman and her child had come for her, and how she __used her own defense to throw them both into the chilly waters._

_ As the villagers went to investigate, Raven slyly walked off into the opposite direction of where she had come. She had to get out of Germany, out of Europe, and go back to America. She couldn't handle this country anymore, especially with the myths that were going to spread of her 'monster baby'._

_ As she hurriedly walked along the lane, a figure appeared in thick smoke near the end of the trail. Mystique approached Azazel slowly and cautiously, as if anticipating that he would attack her._

_ "I know where to take him," Azazel told her, and without asking for her permission, he grabbed her hand and they disappeared in a cloud of dark smoke from the snowy lane. _

_ Where they reappeared was somewhere completely different. They were on the edge of the campsite of a circus. The big tents, striped with red and white, loomed above them, and most of them were dark. Most of the members of the campsite were asleep in the trailers directly ahead of Azazel and Mystique, who was still in her human form._

_Azazel immediately headed for the trailers, Mystique following closely behind him. She was curious as to what Azazel was going to do with the little infant._

_ Stopping in front of one of the trailers, Azazel turned around to face Mystique. She stopped in her tracks, only a few feet behind him, watching him closely. His thin eyebrows knit and his eyes became small and thoughtful. _

_ "Go hide over there," he instructed her, pointing to a small assortment of bushes that were sitting next to a trailer._

_ Raven almost protested, but one look from his frightening eyes – even more frightening than her natural ones – made her follow his orders. She hurried over to the bushes and crouched down behind them. From her spot, she could see and hear what Azazel was doing perfectly._

_ The demonic man walked up to the trailer, which still had many of it's lights on, and knocked on the door, cradling the infant carelessly in one arm. Raven bit her lip to keep from shouting at him. She wanted to jump up and grab the baby, because it looked as if the poor thing might fall from Azazel's hands._

_ A young woman answered the door, and immediately she screamed. But Azazel started to speak to her in a calm voice, lulling her screeches and expression. The young lady's face turned blank and a moment later, she departed back into the trailer._

_ Some moments after this, a man and a woman appeared. The woman resembled a gypsy, and probably was one. The man looked to be the owner of the circus, as he was dressed lavishly and walked with an aloof stride._

_ Azazel spoke convincingly to the man and the woman to take the baby, showing them the infant inside the bundle. At first, they looked startled, but slowly, their faces fell into ones of more sympathy, especially the gypsy woman's. _

_ Even Raven found herself wanting to take the baby more and more by his words. She knew that he had the power of teleportation . . . could he possibly have the power of persuasion, too?_

_ Eventually, Azazel handed the woman the bundle, and shortly after, the door to the trailer shut._

_ Azazel walked over to Mystique as she slowly stood up. She opened her mouth to speak, and he raised his hand to silence her. Mystique closed her mouth, knowing better than to disobey him._

_ "There, he is safe now," Azazel spoke in an indifferent tone, as if he didn't care about the fate of his newborn son. "I've done you a favor, and now you have to do me one by not ever trying to find me again." With that being said, he vanished in a cloud of smelly, sulfur smoke._

_ Raven sighed sadly and glanced toward the trailer. She saw a window near the patch of bushes and quietly crept to it. Raven stood on the tips of her toes to get a good look inside the trailer._

_ The gypsy woman and the ringmaster were surrounded by five of the other circus members in the trailer's small living room. They had apparently already gotten over their shock of the demonic appearance of the infant, and were smiling down at it and laughing joyfully as if it might be any normal, beautiful newborn._

Nightcrawler snapped out of the vision, thrusting his head back. He closed his eyes tightly and batted Mastermind away. The man looked slightly bemused, but took a few steps back anyway, and looked to Mystique for guidance.

After a several long seconds, Nightcrawler was the one who actually broke the silence. "Vhat … vhat vas zat?" He asked, his voice shaky. He opened his bright yellow eyes and looked up at Mystique.

For a few moments, Mystique remembered the newborn baby that she had held in her arms sixteen years before. Now, looking up at her with perplexity and slight fear, he looked almost as innocent as he did then. Naïve. Youthful. Timid.

And pathetic.

Mystique wiped her mind of this and simply regarded him with a cold stare.

"Your past, I think I made that pretty clear earlier," Mystique said insensitively. "That's your real past . . . not those stupid little parents you thought you had."

Kurt gasped, trying to take all of the information in. "But I . . . but I . . . I don't . . ."

Mystique rolled her eyes and looked at Mastermind. "Enough talk for the moment. Give him the next one."

Mastermind nodded his head, and obediently followed her orders. He began to walk up to Kurt, who stifled a slight scream. The blue lady smiled callously as Mastermind started using his powers on Kurt, feeding him the next vision. Payment felt good, even if it was her own kids who were doing the paying.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

It had been a hard fought battle, and it still wasn't done. The civilians were all safe by now, though the X-Men and the Brotherhood were still in danger. They were in danger of each other, of what they would do to each other. The X-Men and New X-Men were all out fighting, though the New Mutants were absent, not trained well enough to handle the situation. The Brotherhood was awfully outnumbered, though they hadn't given up yet. Three of them were down: Toad, Quicksilver, and Blob. The others had various injuries, but they were still battling on. This was mostly because of Pyro. He had brought an undeniable spirit to the group that they couldn't explain . . . it was mainly that he was just _good_, a quality that the teenage Brotherhood members seemed to lack. They yearned to be as good, or better, than he was. They yearned to redeem themselves.

"Hey, Iceboy, ready to give up yet?" Pyro taunted to Iceman, laughing like a lunatic.

Iceman grunted and thrust a few other disks of ice at Pyro, who, in turn, melted them with fire. "Hell no, Fireboy!" He smirked. "I'm just getting started!"

"Well, then let's have some real fun!" Pyro said, grinning menacingly, his Australian accent becoming even thicker. "Shall we?"

Bobby smiled, not genuinely, of course, but somewhat cockily. "Sure! Why not?" He put his arms out, palms facing forward, and started to create a pathway of ice. Bobby hopped on it and started to flow with it, heading straight for Pyro.

Pyro simply smirked and sent jets of fire at the teenager. Bobby ducked out of their way, though had to divert his ice's path. He intensified its speed and came barreling toward Pyro, then, at the last second, jumped into the air and launched several disks of ice at the firebug. Pyro tried to duck out of the way, but one of the disks hit him in the shoulder, another in the stomach. He went staggering backwards in a slight daze. This gave Bobby just enough time to send a few more ice disks at his adversary, as soon as the sixteen-year-old mutant was safely on the ground. Pyro stumbled back onto his rear-end, stunned enough to let Bobby call to Jean to knock him out.

After Pyro was beaten, what was left of the Brotherhood was beaten as well.

Jean sighed and walked over to where the Brotherhood, conscious and unconscious, were gathered, waiting. The rest of the X-Men soon followed her.

"I'm wondering . . . what did they want to do . . ." Beast mused, scratching his chin.

"Probably just to cause trouble," Wolverine said gruffly, crossing his arms. "See if they were _finally_ good enough, Obviously, they're not."

"No, I think there was an interior motive . . ." Beast said, glancing down at the boys – and Wanda, too. "After all, they haven't caused any trouble since the Apocalypse incident. I don't think they'd be ready to try anything on their _own_."

"I must say that I agree with Hank," Storm said in her soft, beautiful African accent. Wolverine simply snorted.

Beast nodded. "They do have Pyro, after all . . . Jean?"

"Already on it," Jean said quietly, trying to dig into the Brotherhood members' minds. Her eyes widened slightly when she caught the thoughts of what their true motives were. "Oh, my gosh . . ."

Scott was by her in an instant. "Jean, what's wrong?"

She looked up at him, then to the adults. "I can't believe I didn't see it before . . . this was a diversion. I know where Rogue and Kurt are."

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

_A small figured, a young Kurt of the past, was curled up in an alleyway on the outskirts of the city of Vienna, Austria. He had to of been only six or seven. The older Kurt viewing the vision couldn't see his face, but he knew that it was a younger version of himself. The younger boy in quest was clad in a dark, long coat. His head was tucked into his chest and he was laying on his side, huddled against a building's wall. A light rain poured down from above, dirtying the young boy with wet mud. His body racked with heavy sobs, which could be heard echoing through the alley._

_ After only a few moments of watching this, just long enough to take the scene in, a woman walked into view. She was adorned in a deep purple cloak, with a hood pulled over her face. She walked with a certain elegant grace over to the young Kurt, and bent down next to him. When she did, she slid her cloak's hood down, and Kurt wasn't so shocked to see that it was the woman who had apparently taken him in as a baby._

_ "Kurt . . ." the gypsy woman said gently, placing a hand on his small shoulder, which made him flinch slightly. "Kurt, honey, what's wrong?" Instead of answering, he continued to sob, and the woman tried again, this time in a voice that was a bit more forceful, though still somewhat understanding. "Kurt, what's wrong?"_

_ "Zey . . . Zey . . ." the little Kurt stuttered, still shaking madly with sobs. He took a deep breath and continued. "They saw me."_

_ "Who saw you, dear?" The woman asked in her soft, warm voice._

_ "Some people from ze circus . . ." the young boy muttered, his voice barely audible over the rain, though the woman somehow managed to hear him. _

_ "What people?" The gypsy asked gently._

_ "Some adults . . . and some kids," Kurt mumbled, sniffling. "Zey saw me outside of ze circus and came up to me . . . one of ze kids pulled on my tail and . . ." He began to sob even harder, unable to finish his sentence._

_ The gypsy woman adapted a slightly hurt, though still sympathetic, look to her face, and slowly wrapped her arms around Kurt, pulling him up into a sitting position so that she could hug him. Young Kurt fell into her embrace, his face finally coming into view: he was the same as the teenage Kurt, just with younger features. A softer face, more naive looking eyes, and an expression that could only be one of an innocent, hurt child. Teenage Kurt felt his own heart soften, even though he was looking at a apparent past version of himself. He just looked so . . . __**pathetic**__._

_ "Why do I look different, Margali?" The younger Kurt asked, looking up at the gypsy woman, who was evidently name Margali with those innocent yellow eyes of his. "Why do I look ugly? Why do __I come from Hell?"_

_ The older Kurt could just practically see Margali's heart break with those three questions, though she just held the younger Kurt tighter. _

_ "You are not ugly," she stated firmly. "You look different because that's the way you were made; I look different from a lot of others, too, but that does not make me any less of a person."_

_ "But . . . why . . ." Kurt started quietly, but Margali cut him off._

_ "You __**do not**__ come from Hell," she told him, hugging him even tighter. "You come from Heaven. You're not a demon even though you look like one . . . you're an angel because you act like one."_

Kurt snapped out of the vision with a gasp, and many, many more memories were flashing back to his mind. He groaned. It made his head hurt. It was like . . . well, it was like getting his life back. The images of the people that he had thought were his parents vanished, and they were replaced with new images of the people that he really, truly cared about. He had troubled matches these faces with names, but some of them he managed to . . . Margali, Jimaine, Stefan . . . there were others, but those two stood out the most in his mind. Kurt looked up at Mystique, who was standing directly above him, with accusing eyes.

"Why did you take those memories from me!" He demanded, shoving Mastermind aside with ease as he stood up to his full height. "Why would you do that!"

"I had to protect you," Mystique replied, her voice as steely as it always seemed to be. "From the truth. I do care about you, Kurt . . . that's why I wanted to protect you. But . . . there are some things I suppose I can't protect you from."

"Vhat could be so horrible zat you need to to protect me from it!" Kurt shouted, taking a few steps closer to her. "Vhat could be so bad!" His German accent was flaring up so much that it would have been hard to understand if weren't a fluent German speaker. Fortunately for Mystique, she was.

"You'll see . . . you just need to give your mind time enough to get all of your memories back . . . especially the one that even your own mind will try to block out," Mystique replied indifferently.

Kurt was about to yell at her again, but the door to the basement suddenly burst open, and Cyclops, Jean, Shadowcat, and Wolverine stumbled into the room.

"I suppose this is where I take my leave," Mystique announced coldly, and suddenly, shape-shifted and split into a flock of six ravens. They each flew toward the exit to the basement, nipping and stabbing at the X-Men as they passed. Scott cursed, knowing that he could not hit them with his beams in such close quarters, and looked to Jean. She simply shook her head and turned to Kurt and Mastermind, glancing quickly at Rogue, who was still unconscious on the floor.

Kurt looked up at the four, then dropped to his knees on the ground and stared down at it. He shut out the world while most of his memories came back. The blue mutant didn't even react to the others trying to speak to him as they walked him out of the building.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~

"Please, Professor, just . . . just leave me alone . . ."

A few days later, Rogue and Kurt were back to their normal mental and physical health, though their emotions were shattered. Everyone in the mansion could see the change, and most were afraid to go near them, for the fear of saying something wrong. Many rumors had floated around the mansion about what was happened, thought the Professor had amended one thing: Rogue and Kurt were going through a hard time. They had been put through something that nobody should have been put through. When they wanted to talk about it, they would.

Even Professor Xavier was having a hard time getting through to them, though he was trying his hardest to be caring and sincere.

"But, Kurt, I just want to help you . . ." Professor X said slowly, almost pleadingly.

Kurt shook his head. "No." Then, he disappeared in a cloud of smoke, causing the Professor to sigh deeply.

"He still won't talk?" Storm asked as she entered his office, looking very concerned.

Professor Xavier shook his head. "No . . . and I don't know what to do, Ororo. I don't know what to do."

Kurt teleported in a cloud of indigo to a different part of the mansion, one of the hallways. He had teleported at random, not really caring where he was going, but he realized that he had ended up outside of Rogue's room. Kurt sighed. Maybe that was a sigh . . .

The door was already open a crack, so he pushed it open slowly and took a glance inside. Finally, he spotted Rogue on the balcony outside of her room, and teleported again, this time to where she was standing. Rogue barely looked up when he appeared next to her.

"What do you want?" She asked quietly, her eyes flitting to him, then back across the lawn, to an invisible something that wasn't there.

"I just . . . I just thought we could talk . . ." Kurt started, but Rouge cut him off with a shake of her head.

"No, we can't talk," she said bluntly, scowling. "I don't want to talk about it."

"But, Rogue . . ." Kurt attempted again, but Rogue sent him a glare, and he quieted down.

"I'll talk about it when I want to talk about it."

"Fine, I just thought it would be nice to talk about it with me firs than with anyone else, seeing as how we're going through the same thing," Kurt retorted. "But I guess I'll have to wait." He disappeared yet again in a cloud of dark blue sulfur.

Rogue waited for the smoke to settle, and then dropped her head into her hands, letting out a dry sob.

"Yeah, Kurt, you will . . ." She muttered, sinking to the ground.

**Soooo . . . yay, I finally finished it! Complete update! :D Boo for procrastination and loss of interest! XD I hope I gain some new reviews or readers or whatever with this update . . . but you know . . . ;) I also hope you guys, my readers, whoever you may be at this point, like the idea of Rogue's and Kurt's "hidden pasts", because I TOTALLY hated their pasts in the show. They were so messed up! =.=**

** Anyway, on the next installment of X-Men: Evolution: Season Five (IF I EVER GET AROUND TO IT): There's a homecoming dance in Bayville, but does a select group of mutant-haters have a plan for the X-Men? YOU BET THEY DO. Also, Kurt and Rogue find out more about their pasts, and finally put trust in each other to tell their stories! This will be another angst-y one, some hurt/comfort and drama . . . but the part after that shall be happier than the last two. And also . . . more stuff about the "big plot" might unfold. Just saying. ;)**


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